I am starting the evening/weekend RN program in Jan and have received the packet with all the required tasks prior to beginning. My question is regarding the dosage calculations. Can anyone that is currently in a RN program tell me what all you needed to know regarding the dosage calsulations? I am curretnly studying out of Dosage Calculations Made Incredibly Easy however I am getting very nervous about how much I need to learn on my own. Clearly it is important that I learn this but do they really leave you on your own?? Math is not my strong point - any feedback is greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone!
I am wondering what did everyone do to get by when they first started school for nursing. I am a single mother of a 5 yr old and am currently pregnant yet not married.( what a statistic right) I am waiting till after school to be married. However, my significant other isn't capable of paying the bills alone. Any help of what I could do. thanks so much
brandy:trout:
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when is your baby due, and do you expect to stay in the program and take time off for the delivery ?!?!?
How many days a week is your program?
who will watch your 5 yo and new baby while you do class and clinicals ( usually 4 days per week)
you plan on working as well?
before you make a plan, you have to take all factors into account. Nursing school is extremely time consuming and demanding. Most clinical hours start at 6 am twice per week, will you have child care?
Find out what your program requires of you and then go from there.
We had to pass our dosage calc classes with a 90% or better in order to start the junior year and then we have to pass it again in order to continue with the senior year. No one has not passed them (we get 2 tries). The first test out of 80 of us, only 2 didn't pass the first try, but they both passed it the second time.
After you get dosage calc under your belt (meaning you have memorized the conversions, etc) it is EASY! We have dosage calc problems on every test and that is always everyone fav parts because we all get them correct :)
We had to pass a basic calculations test to even get in to our program (new requirement) and that was the gist of what we did for most of the semester...about 3/4 of the way in, we started with IV drip calculations....I made myself a little mnemonic for the basic calculations, as when I hadn't used them for awhile, I kept forgetting the order!!
OAQ (or "Oak")
Ordered amt/Available amt X Quantity (if applicable)
So:
Ordered: 250 mg tabs
Available: 125 mg tabs
250/125 = 2 tablets
If the meds are in solution, such as ml, then that would be your Quantity....hopefully I didn't make it more confusing?!?!
I highly recommend the Calculate with Confidencetext....lots of practice problems and it starts at the beginning with reviews of the Roman numerals, fractions, decimals, etc., then proceeds on in to IVs, etc. I hope your program will do a math review as you go along!!
Specializes in Critical Care, Pediatrics, Geriatrics.
I was always good at math, so dosage calculation seemed pretty easy. My school did a really good job of explaining dosage calculation and we had very few failures. Alot of people get nervous about the math portion of nursing, but it's really not that hard. The only people that failed in my program did not apply themselves or did not show up for class. I am sure if you will find that you have gotten more anxious over it than you need to be. Just stick in there. You will be fine.
About a week before my first quarter started I received via email the syallbus for my clinical class. In it they mentioned we would be taking a dosage calc test the first week and had to get 95% on it or we would not pass meds in clinicals. It was "recommended" that we buy a math for nurses book, but aside from that, we received NO instruction. Needless to say our type A personality selves FLIPPPED OUT. Finally after whimpering to our prof repeatedly she gave us a practice exam and a review session, and no one failed the test.
Of course, I just found out last night that I have to take another one this quarter and I mildly panicked and whipped out my math for nurses book again. The hardest thing for me is remembering the conversion factors for things like teaspoons or grains. The test itself is really not that bad, as others have said. It's always the anxiety that's the worst. You'll be okay.
I'm gonna throw a fireball in here ~~~ dosage isn't math.
Ok, ok, I know that you will use some math functions and do conversions, but remember this . . .
if math freaked you out in a previous life (like me), bear in mind that dosage is not math. It's dosage.
I'm halfway through a BSN program at a large university with an astonishingly high NCLEX pass rate. We are REQUIRED to use "dimensional analysis". There are plenty of good books out there on this, and the description above is a good start.
Whatever you use to learn, practice it until you can do it in your sleep.
After each problem, take a second to review your answer. Ask yourself "is my answer reasonable?" Would you really give an IM of 50 mL? PO meds and peds are different, too. Keep your head on straight when you look at the answer.
Also, take the time to really memorize all the conversions (lb to kg, Tb to mL).
Devote a notebook to nothing but your drug calculations....each semester you'll learn something new and if you have a central place to keep it all, it sure makes it easier!!
Pediatrics drug calculations are specific to peds, there are some IV calculations specific to OB, etc.
My drug calculations notebook was worth it's weight in gold :)
After each problem, take a second to review your answer. Ask yourself "is my answer reasonable?" Would you really give an IM of 50 mL? PO meds and peds are different, too. Keep your head on straight when you look at the answer.
That reminds me... one of my friends who is normally very brilliant but a little ditzy passed her dosage calc test but missed one question. We had to calculate a drip rate and she wound up with half a drop per minute. When questioned, jokingly, by our director about how she expected to accomplish that, she said "Simple. One drop every two minutes!"
I would say to learn (at least somewhat) how to do the problem two ways: dimensional analysis AND cross-multiplication. I tend to do all the problems twice, both ways, to make sure I get the same answer both times. If I get different answers, then I need to go back and see what I'm missing. It helps me catch mistakes frequently.
moongirl
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