Practical Nursing Calculations: Getting the Dose Right / Edition 1

by Valda Hext, Lidia Mayner

Overview

Worried about getting the dose wrong?

Don't know your fractions from your decimals?

You're not alone! Many people are not comfortable with their mathematical abilities but for most it's not a life or death situation. For nurses, however, a 'bad maths day' can have catastrophic consequences if drug dosages are calculated incorrectly.

Practical Nursing Calculations provides easy to understand explanations of key calculations. The many exercises offer opportunities to practise basic problem-solving to help build your confidence. The use of real-life situations demonstrates how maths is actually applied when working with patients. Realistic scenarios introduce common presenting illnesses and the medications used to treat them, and enables you to calculate their correct dosages.

This book has been developed to assist you to gain competency in basic mathematical skills and problem-solving techniques which require applied or conceptual mathematics. Practical Nursing Calculations has emerged from actual classroom curriculum and ten years of teaching in a major nursing school.

Easy to use, Practical Nursing Calculations provides you with a thorough grounding in the fundamentals of mathematics and a sense of how to apply your knowledge in your professional lives. A sound teaching and learning resource, this book is appropriate for self-directed learning or as a classroom guide.

This text is accompanied by a password-accessed website with extra exercises and quizzes.

www.allenandunwin/nursing

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781865088747
Publisher:	Allen & Unwin
Publication date:	09/01/2003
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.81(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Valda Hext is a lecturer in the school of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of South Australia. Lidia Mayner is a registered nurse and lecturer in physiology at the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Flinders University.

Table of Contents

Nursing Calculations in Context

Part I

Module 1 - Basic skills

* Introductory assessment

* Basic mathematics: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division

* Fractions

* The metric system

* Practice exercises, scenarios and answers

Module 2 - Medications

* Oral medications: Tablets and mixtures

* Intravenous fluid management and naso-gastric feeding

* Parenteral medications

* Practice exercises, scenarios and answers

Part II

Module 3 - Injections

* Intravenous bolus dosages, as a 'push', via a volumetric pump.

* Exercises and scenarios include calculating doses for the following patient conditions:

Appendicectomy, cholecystectomy, pylonephritis, diabetes and pregnancy, myocardial infarction, alcoholism, infected leg ulcer, CVA, hypertension, abdominal pain, tonsillectomy, epilepsy, ovarian cyst, severe diarrhoea, dehydration, haemorrhoidectomy.

Module 4 -