Pediatric medication calculation

Your calculations are correct and I agree it looks weird but it's right. The issue is they are using a pediatric format (suspension) for a patient who has achieved an adult weight. In the real world (if the patient can swallow pills) he would be given Ampicillin 500mg BID in a tablet/capsule format. But of course this is NCLEX land so there's that. The pediatric suspension is really formulated for little kids so administering it in adult doses is going to seem like an abnormally large volume. If it helps try to think of it as about 3.5 tablespoons. In my brain that doesn't seem as high a volume. When I worked in peds and took care of some of our older severely disabled patients with g-tubes we would often get ginormous bottles of medications in suspension form due to the weight of the patient and the concentration of the medication.

Wuzzie,

Thank you for the reply! I went over this problem so many times and even consulted my old medication textbook b/c I felt I must have been doing something wrong. But you're right, this is NCLEX land and I've been doing countless practice questions, some seem so irrelevant but I gotta do what I can do pass. Thanks again :)

You're doing fine. And as an old nurse to a newbie please always keep this same level of, for lack of a better term, scrutiny in your practice once you become a nurse. If something seems off...investigate and confirm. Take your time and use your resources to provide competent AND excellent care. Good luck to you in your future endeavors.