Rounding oral liquid medication and IV/IM

[Jamesryan]

I'm a nursing student taking a dosage calculation class this summer. I was working some pediatric weight based problems for oral liquid medications example a 2 year old patient with fever is ordered Tylenol 15mg/kg the patient weighs 12.3 kg and amount of Tylenol available is 160mg/5 ml how many ml would you give. My answer came out to be 5.765 ml but I it be rounded to 5.8 ml. Or should you round it to 5.77 ml? Also with IM and IV pediatric medications should they be rounded to the tenths place?

[Jamesryan]

The reason I rounded my answer because I read that for amounts greater than 1 ml round to the nearest tenth ml and amounts less than 1 ml round to the nearest hundredth ml. I just want to know if that applies to pediatric medication administration

[chare]

For academic purposes your instructor should tell you whether you should round to 1 or 2 decimal places. In practice, and I work PICU, the device I am using determine the number of decimal places I round to. If I am using a 1 mL syringe I round to 2 decimal places; a 3, 5, or 10 mL syringe I round to 1 decimal place; and if using a 20 or 60 mL syringe I round to the whole number.

[Jamesryan]

For academic purposes your instructor should tell you whether you should round to 1 or 2 decimal places. In practice, and I work PICU, the device I am using determine the number of decimal places I round to. If I am using a 1 mL syringe I round to 2 decimal places; a 3, 5, or 10 mL syringe I round to 1 decimal place; and if using a 20 or 60 mL syringe I round to the whole number.

Ok so it would be appropriate to round a oral liquid dose greater than 1ml to the nearest tenth ml in a pediatric patient?

[LilyRN99]

A 5 ml syringe has markings for even # so what if your dose is 4.1?

[Jamesryan]

Yes that's true so what are you supposed to do in that scenario?

[Jamesryan]

You could draw up 4ml in a 5ml syringe and then draw up 0.1ml in a 3ml syringe?

[DanidelionRN, BSN, RN]

A 5 ml syringe has markings for even # so what if your dose is 4.1?

Depends on how precise the med is. If critically important, I would draw it up in smaller syringes. If this is something where it is less precise, I will draw it up to halfway between two lines, if I need the number in the middle.

[chare]

Most, if not all 5 and 10 mL syringes, both oral and IV, are gradated on 0.1 mL increments.

[Jamesryan]

I've never seen a 5ml syringe with 0.1ml increments

[Rainbow_RN, BSN, RN]

Hello, I was taught that if the amount is less than 1 mL--round to 2 decimal places. If the amount is greater than 1 mL--round to 1 decimal place. EDIT: Yes, this rule does apply to pediatric meds in my experience. So I would answer it as 5.8 mL. However! Honestly, in nursing school, I've found that things like this are left to "instructor preference." So if it's not printed on your math test/assignment/practice questions, it doesn't hurt to ask.

[Coffee Nurse, BSN, RN]

I've never seen a 5ml syringe with 0.1ml increments

Nor have I.