What to do with classroom questions the teacher doesn't know- but should!?!?

[Starfish1]

ok so the other day i posted the following on the student assistance board (below my post) i got great answers from you all but wanted to ask my teacher if she would take both answers as being correct....ok so i sent her an e-mail and asked...waited 3 days no reply- ok cut her some slack, maybe she forgot...

sooooo yesterday we have class and i go up to her during our break (she was answering everyone else's questions) and she said " you are the one who e-mailed me right- ohhh i thought i was going to have a break too" she tells me and i said "yes i e-mailed you" proceeded to show her the examples and she told me " i know how to get the right answer but dont know how to explain it, i have had to take all my math classes twice because i am not good at math- maybe someone else can help you" then proceeds to answer more questions from other students...in my head i am thinking- i thought you wanted a break

ok my question is not how to solve the problem but if i add the ml of the drug to the amount to be infused some problems do and some do not....i dont think my question is that hard and requires a simple yes you add the drug for this ----- or you dont add the drug for this---- something simple as such

i just am floored by the answer she gave me honestly, anyone else have experiences like this and what do you do? this is my question i asked her yesterday, and e-mailed to her....

what do you suggest i do from here??? i am not asking her for test questions or what is going to be on a test, this is a legit question that i think she should be able to answer.......

i have been working on getting this iv math down for a few days now- i am confused- my book says that if you have any drug that exceeds 5 ml that it should be added to the dilution volume in intermittent drug therapy

sooooo

then they present a problem in my text as such...

order ticarcillin 500 mg, iv q6h

drug on hand 1,000 mg = 4 ml

set and solution: buretrol set with a drop factor of 60 gtt/ml; infusion pump; 500 ml of d5w

instructions: dilute drug in 75 ml of d5w and infuse over 40 min

1)amount of drug ( as per my calculations) needed 2ml

2) flow rate (gtt/min)

since it is under 5 as per my book does not need to be added to dilution i would do the following:

75/40 (x) 60 = 112.5 gtt/min

3) infusion pump rate( ml/hr )

75 divided by 40(time given)/60 (min) so my math comes out as 112.5 ml/hr or 113 ml per hour

however, in the back of the book they added the 2 ml to the dilutent so problem #2 came out as 116 gtt/min and #3 116 ml/hr

next problem

order methicillin 1g iv q6h

drug available 4g in 8 ml

set and solution: secondary set with a drop factor of 15 gtt/ml; 100 ml bag of d5w; infusion pump

instructions dilute drug in 100 ml of d5w and infuse over 40 minutes

1) drug calculation 2 ml

2) flow rate ( gtt/min)

100/40 (x) 15 = 37.5 or 38 gtt/min

3) infusion pump ( ml/hr)

100 divided by 40/60 =150 ml/hr

so this problem all the above answers are right but does not add the 2ml of the drug to the dilutent total

please help- i am confused why one situation added the 2 ml and the other didn't. i would have of course added it, if it were over 5ml as per the book but dont understand why one is added to the total and the other is not

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

I remember your post on this. I had suggested that you go to the instructor to clarify the discrepancy.

Here's what I think is probably going on. It's not your instructor's fault. The organization of the material that is assigned and taught to students is often an organized machine of the nursing school and your instructor is as much a victim of it as you students are. This is most likely the first example of an incongruency in the answers to the problems that she is hearing about. I would give her points for being honest with you about not being good at math. She's trying to be fair with you students as well as please her bosses and follow the rules of the she is supposed to be doing. I think the next moves I would make would be

• Start approaching other instructors in your nursing school about this. Someone in the nursing program must have dealt with this problem of conflicting answers from the textbook in the past.
  
• Question your instructor as to what specific answers are going to be acceptable on medication calculation tests you are going to be having. It's highly likely that your instructor hasn't written the medication calculation tests you are going to be getting either--at least that is what I would be thinking. She's most likely following a curriculum she was given by her bosses and doesn't have much wiggle room, or thinks she doesn't, to make changes.
  
• Contact the publisher of the textbook and/or try to get directly in touch with the editors or the actual author of the textbook and query them about these specific problems and why the answers are different because your instructors cannot explain it. You just might get an answer back which you can share with the instructor and will impact future editions of the textbook if a correction needs to be made.
  
• Often math textbooks have an accompanying answer book that has the problems worked out. The publisher can tell you if one exists for your textbook. However, publishers will not usually allow students to get their hands on them, but your instructor can by contacting the publisher.