Pharm. Calc. ANXIETY!!!

[crok9014]

Does ANYONE have ANY tricks on how to master Pharm Calc??? I am absolutely terrible at math and the girl that used to tutor me (which is what got me through Pre-Calc.) just failed out of nursing school over a Pharm Calc test! I am so shocked, scared, terrified since the military is paying for my education and if I fail out I owe back a ton of money not to mention the fact that I would be DEVASTATED!!!

I have been a medic in the military for 7 years now and I am finally getting ready to begin the RN program I have been working for years to get into. Please, please, please... any advice on how I can start preparing would make my day! :) Pharm Calc is not taught in our program... we are expected to learn it outside of the classroom and have an assessment early in our first semester... I'd like to work on it over the next few weeks before the program begins.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!

[avahnel, ASN, RN]

Get Calulate with Confidence by Deborah Gray Morris. It walks you through all of the math you need regarding medication administration. It is very easy to use and you could easily do it self study. You will have to memorize a few formulas, but once you do that-all you do is plug in the numbers and get the answer.

[9livesRN, BSN, RN]

my tips are:

MAKE a formula cheat sheet.

use it to do some exercises, when you are feeling more confidents, skip looking at the cheat sheet. next thing you know you will be doing fine!

i am taking pharm calc in january, and am already reading the book and getting ready.

1- become familiar with nursing abbreviations

2- become familiar with mesurements, ml, l, mcg, mg, g, oz, units, cm and such!

3- practice how to change from one mesurement to another.

4- make formulas for gtt/ml, gtt/min/ bsa, and such

and then study, and practice, practice and practice!

I taught my self math, and hate it!!! but i must practice otherwise i will forget it!!!

[LiliyaRN]

calculate with confidence is the book i used in school, it really helps. I think you freak yourself out over the math just thinking about it. Get this and start going over concepts earlier to give yourself more time to process it. This book is really easy to use and is really user friendly. I remember that if I would get stuck especially on diving decimals without a calculator, I would use math.com.

Hope it helps you, I think the most important this is to give yourself time to learn the concepts and concentrate on using them. Believe me, if you hate this, wait until you get to clinicals and it will all make sense to you; it will also give you confidence and you will feel reassured that you are giving your patient the correctly dosed medication.