Type of calculator needed for pharmacology class

Nursing Students General Students

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I have a graphing calculator that I bought in high school and I was going to get rid because I rarely ever use it. But I just started nursing school and I've got a pharmacology class coming up this fall. Do you need a pretty high tech calculator for pharmacology or will a regular scientific calculator (the ones that are like $12) work better?

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Specializes in CTICU.

I never needed a fancy calculator for pharm. Statistics, maybe, but not pharm.

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Same here, no special calculator needed. Most of the calculations are basic division and multiplication; plugging numbers into different formulas (eg calculation drip rate and how many milliliters to give).

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Specializes in Critical Care.

You need a calculator that can multiply, add, subtract, and divide. A decimal point helps, too.

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Actually, not only did we not need a fancy calculator...we weren't allowed to use one. We were only allowed to use a basic 4 function (+, -, x, /) calculator.

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Specializes in Psychiatry.

figuring out drug doses is not that complicated; like other posters stated, you only need a "basic" calculator. I'll bet you can find you easily for 10 bucks.

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Specializes in US Army.

You need to be able to figure out dosages without the help of a calculator. It's all simple math anyway, nothing above middle school level...

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Specializes in Psychiatry.
You need to be able to figure out dosages without the help of a calculator. It's all simple math anyway, nothing above middle school level...

Exactly!! Don't stress yourself out over it...

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You need to check with your school first. We are not allowed to use one. In any case its simple Math. Also, what'll happen if you can't find a calculator?

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Specializes in Tele, CVIU.

Just a regular calculator. You don't need anything fancy.

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I never used a calculator for my pharm class. If you are planning on taking statistics, then yes you will need that calculator.

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Specializes in Urgent Care NP, Emergency Nursing, Camp Nursing.

I didn't need a scientific calculator. However, years of math has ingrained order of operations in my head and made me used to calculators that take the order into account, so a non-scientific calculator would give me wonky results and generally frustrate me. That, and you can get two-line scientific calculators now that save the past 30 or so things you've entered, so instead of retyping your 20-button chain, you can go to make a correction in the last one and just hit enter again. It's like having the most usable feature of a graphing calculator without the cost or bulk.

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