Recommendation Request: Dosage Calc Understanding Books?

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Hello,
I've not yet taken any NUR courses, but as a new nursing student approaching them this Fall, I wanted to get a head start on creating a basic understanding of the fundamentals of dosage calculation.

I did a search on this site for materials, but came up dry.
I was hoping that someone could recommend a book that they thought was especially helpful for working on laying down some fundamentals.

I've been all over Amazon and the reviews are so mixed. One book, a reviewer ever mentions that there are multiple errors that caused them a lot of hardship in re-learning things correctly, so I def want to avoid that scenario.

Thanks for any help ?

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Specializes in Emergency / Disaster.

Check out booklist for the school that you will be attending. Purchase that one and start on it now. Even if its an older version - its essentially the same. Good Luck.

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In my opinion, dosage calc books and classes overcomplicate it. Dosage calculation is all rates and proportions. Even the formula they're going to teach you is just a basic proportion. It's basic math that you clearly know how to do if you made it this far. Do you remember how to calculate a percent? If you got 4 out of 5, what percent is it? 4/5 : x / 100, and you'd solve it by just dividing 4 by 5 and multiplying by 100? Same exact principle. If you need 4mg and it comes 5mg in 10 mL of saline... 4mg/5mg : x / 10mL

Need to give it over 45 minutes and need the rate per hour?

8mL/45 minutes : x / 60 minutes.

Don't have a pump and have to do it by drips with a tube that 60gtts / mL?

60gtts / 1mL : x / 0.2mL

I wouldn't waste the money on any book that isn't what your school uses for that class.

Just practice proportion word problems. They're free on the internet. If you can do those, dosage calculation is the same exact thing

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Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.

I found the book "maths and meds for nurses' was really good.

It takes you from the basic maths and shows you how the maths applies to the drug calcs.

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