St Louis Community College Dosage and Calculations Test

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Hello,

I will be taking the Dosage and Calculation Test to get into Meramec's Nursing Program. I know there is a class that is offered, but I currently reside in CO, so I am unable to take that class. I got a practice test and had a few questions. Can anyone walk me through on how to do these calculations? Thank you very much!

Order: Ampicillin 500 mg

Avail: Ancef 1g

Directions: Reconstitute with 2.5mL normal saline to yeild 3mL worth a concentration of 330mg/mL

Give: ???

Order: Zosyn 2.5g

Avail: 3.375g vial of powdered Zosyn

Directions: Reconstitute Zosyn with 5 mL of normal saline for a total solution volume of 5mL.

Give: ???

If anyone has personally taken this test do you have any suggestions to better my score?:)

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Specializes in Medical Surgical/Addiction/Mental Health.

Okay…first, don’t get so caught up with all of the information provided. The most important two bits of information are: the order which is 500mg of Ampicillin AND the final concentration about of 330mg/ml. So, an easy way of calculating this is: 500mg/330mg X 1ml = 1.5 ml (You will notice that when you do the calculation, you have an answer of 1.5151515151…) Since the amount is over 1ml, you round to the nearest tenth. Anything below 1ml, you round to the nearest hundredth.

The second is similar. Okay, so you know that after reconstituting the medication, you will have a total of 3.375g in 5ml, right? The order is asking for 2.5g. So, 3.375g/2.5g X 5ml = 3.7ml

When have exams with 100 questions each time we start a new course, so we are constantly doing dosage calculations. My suggestion is don’t get caught up in the little details. For example, in the second example, it tells you that the powder medication is 3.375 g in 5ml, right? If you have an order for 2.5g, you already know that you will not use the entire container of medication.

The order is always important. Don’t forget that you may be required to make conversions. For example, you may have an order for 15ml of a medication and it asks how many tsp or tbs. If you don’t know that 5ml makes up a tsp, you will not be able to answer the question. Also, look up grains (gr). How many mg are in a gr? Knowing how to convert is essential in dosage calculations.

Good luck to you.

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Thank you so much. That helped me out a lot!:lol2:

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I took that same dosage test and instead of going to the class, I bought the book that you need for the class, which is called Calculate with Confidence by Deborah C. Gray Morris. It helped me pass on the first try...good luck!

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Okay so I want to take the dosage calculations test at St. Louis Community College soon. I have taught myself how to do the problems that are on the practice test and feel confident. My only question is are there any other types of problems on the test that I need to know or does the real test only have problems such as the ones on the practice test? Is the test multiple choice or fill in the blank? Thanks

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