The Nursing Math Thread

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A member pm'd me the following question highlighted below. We created this thread for you guys to talk about math, solve math problems, and post math websites that you have found helpful.

I was wondering, is there a sticky or a special site that can be coordinated for "math sufferers". Perhaps, beginning calculations or shall i say the basics..simple to complex...step by step on how to calculate. I'm a visual learner, numbers and I don't work well. I am trying, but I've got a block!

Specializes in Medical and general practice now LTC.
hello everyone this is my 1st post and not really sure if i'm posting this in the correct place, but here goes...

question 1:

order: nitroglycerin 0.4 mg sublingual every 5 minutes x3 as needed for chest pain. pharmacy sends you nitroglycerin 400mcg tablets. how many tablets will you adminster?

question 2:

order: tetracycline 250mg orally 4 times a day for infection. pharmacy sends you tetracycline 500mg tablets. how many tablets do you adminster in a dose?

o.k. first off in question 1 i know the conversion of 0.4mg=400mcg=1 tab...but the x3 and the lack of "in a dose" confuses me into thinking the answer is 3...which my professor says is 1!!!

obviously question 2 is 0.5 tablets in a dose...am i crazy or is part of the question missing??

thanks anyone can pm me my test is on tuesday...:banghead::confused:

question 1. it is take 1 tablet 0.4mcg every 5 mins x3 means the max amount of times to take so can repeat 1 tablet 3 times every 5 mins as long as the patient is still complaining

question 2 is correct you administer 1/2 a tablet. my only concern there would be that not every tablet will split cleanly into half so can not guarantee that the dose would be correct and therefore pharmacy really should send the correct dose

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
hello everyone this is my 1st post and not really sure if i'm posting this in the correct place, but here goes...

question 1:

order: nitroglycerin 0.4 mg sublingual every 5 minutes x3 as needed for chest pain. pharmacy sends you nitroglycerin 400mcg tablets. how many tablets will you adminster?

question 2:

order: tetracycline 250mg orally 4 times a day for infection. pharmacy sends you tetracycline 500mg tablets. how many tablets do you adminster in a dose?

o.k. first off in question 1 i know the conversion of 0.4mg=400mcg=1 tab...but the x3 and the lack of "in a dose" confuses me into thinking the answer is 3...which my professor says is 1!!!

obviously question 2 is 0.5 tablets in a dose...am i crazy or is part of the question missing??

thanks anyone can pm me my test is on tuesday...

question 1:

order: nitroglycerin 0.4 mg sublingual every 5 minutes x3 as needed for chest pain. pharmacy sends you nitroglycerin 400mcg tablets. how many tablets will you adminster?

this is a typical order for nitroglycerine tablets. when we have a patient with chest pain we start out by administering one tablet of the ntg sublingually and then evaluating the patient 5 minutes later to see if the chest pain has resolved or not. if the chest pain is gone no more ntg tablets are given. if the chest pain is still present, a second tablet is given sublingually and the patient is evaluated 5 minutes later. if the chest pain is gone no more ntg tablets are given. if the chest pain is still present, the third tablet is given sublingually. after 5 minutes if chest pain is still present then we called the doctor for further orders, but often a maximum of 3 tablets did the job. tablets #2 and #3 are considered as prn doses.

question 2:

order: tetracycline 250mg orally 4 times a day for infection. pharmacy sends you tetracycline 500mg tablets. how many tablets do you adminster in a dose?

no part of the question is missing. the answer is to give half a tablet. yes, we do break tablets in half and administer half tablets. many tablets come with a line scored down their center so that they can be broken in half.

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Specializes in Psychiatric.

We were required to do edose.net. It walks you through step by step beginning with basic SI units.

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Anyone wanna take a stab at this one??

Gr 1/150 = _______mcg?

Gr= grains

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
Anyone wanna take a stab at this one??

Gr 1/150 = _______mcg?

Gr= grains

1 grain = 60 mg

1 mg = 1000 mcg

1 gr/150 x 60 mg/1 grain x 1000 mcg/1 mg =
400 mcg

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Thanks! Did you initially get 399.99 then round to 400? Because that's what I got but didn't round. Thanks again.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
Thanks! Did you initially get 399.99 then round to 400? Because that's what I got but didn't round. Thanks again.

150 divided into 60,000 comes out to an even 400.

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i found that this is a helpful site...http://www.m2hnursing.com/medcal/index.php -

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hi ladies pls. help i want to take refresher course in math i'm going to take my pre-reqs this spring, what kind of math should i take to prepare me for nursing? i suck in math esp. college algebra but I A's my business math i took it few years ago when I was still in college. Im willing to retake any kind of math if I had too.

What math should i take?

thanks-

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Specializes in OR Pre-op, Post-op.

Really, if you went to your local book store and bought a nursing calc book, I think you would be good to go. Mine, by "Joyce Kee, 6th edition, even has a chapter or two on fractions if you need brushing up. They give you formulas to choose from and once you get comfortable with one all you do is plug in numbers. I also picked the brain of a few nurses (Thanks Daytonite) who clarified any ?'s that i had. The combo of help form the site and a bit of study/pratice got me a 49 of 50 on the test! Good luck!

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Can someone help me out with this one? I'm not even sure where to begin. Do you get the answer in mg/hr and have to convert to mL/hr?

Order: Inocor 50 mg, IV bolus over 2 min. Available: Inocor 100 mg/20 mL.

Determine the amount that should be infused per minute. (mL/min rate)

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Specializes in OR Pre-op, Post-op.

Have x Want (since there is no conversion needed)

20 50 = 1000 0r 10 ml. Divide the 10ml by 2 (the minutes)=5 ml per/min

100 X x 100

Hope this helps

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