HESI DOSAGE CALCULATIONS-LPN TO RN TRANSITION 3 VERSIONS EXAM

HESI DOSAGE CALCULATIONS-LPN TO RN TRANSITION 3 VERSIONS EXAM REAL EXAM SCORED 1200 CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT SAMPLE PREVIEW CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT SAMPLE/PREVIEW CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT Dose is 0.5 mg x kg Child’s weight is in pounds, so we have to convert it to kg 1 Kg = 2.2 pounds (lb) X kg = 42 lb X = 42*1/2.2 = 19 kg So the dose is 0.5 mg x 19 kg = 9.5 mg ---------------- that’s the 1 st part to get into the final partof the question which is how many ml should be administered? In other words, to get 9.5 mg delivered, how many mL should be given? The key answer is how much solution, ampule, syrup …. you have (in other words, the fixed amount of medicine that would be supplied for you from the pharmacy) So here we have 25 mg / mL in each ampule, and we need to give 9.5 mg, if you arrange it in an equation, it will be: CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT 25 mg ---- 1 mL 9.5 mg ---- x mL (x is always the missing amount that you need to know) X = 9.5 x 1/25 = 0.381 --> round to nearest tenth = 0.4 CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT Question: the healthcare provider prescribes captopril 37.5 mg PO daily. The medication is available in 25 mg tablets. How many tablets should the nurse administer? (Enter numeric only, if rounding is required, round to the nearest tenth). This should be the easiest questions and sometimes you don’t even need to use the calculator, imagine you have a medicine regardless of its name, and it comes in strength of 25 mg, you need to give 37.5 mg, both are same units, so your main concern is how to get 37.5 out of 25? just divide them! And you will get 1.5 tablets! Easy and straight! After you have the answer, just double check yourself, and imagine you have the medicine next to you, and you have 1 tablet of 25 mg and half tablet of 25 mg which is 12.5mg, add them together, 25 + 12.5 = 37.5, which what we need! So your answer is correct! Let’s move to the next question! 3 CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT Question: The PN administers amoxicillin/clavulanate 500 mg PO every 8 hours to a client with a staphylococcus infection. In a 24 hour period. How many mg of amoxicillin/clavulanate should the client receive? (Enter the numerical value only. If rounding is required, round to the whole number.) If you don’t have a good pharmacology/microbiology background, don’t freak out! Just ignore the name of medications/bacteria. 99% they have nothing to do in calculation questions! Just understand the question and you will have the answer by your self! You are talking a medicine with a strength of 500 mg every 8 hours, how many mg you will take in 24 hours? So in other word, how many 8 hours are there in 24 hours? 3! 500 mg x 3 = 1500 mg! Easy! Next… 4 CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT Question: A client is prescribed carbidopa-levodopa 20/200 mg PO BID. The pharmacy delivers carbidopa-levodopa 10/100 mg tablets. The nurse should administer how many tablets at each dose? (Enter the numeric value only. If rounding is required, round to the whole number.) To answer these questions, you should understand the question correctly, make sure you understand the different between how many tablet should be taken at each dose vs how many tablets should be taken per day or every 24 hours. Some questions might trick you with this. So back to our question, you need to give a medicine with a strength of 20/200 but the pharmacy supplied you with a strength of 10/100 of the same medicine, how many tablets you will administer in each dose? The answer is 2 ! and that what the question asked for! Assume the question asks for the 24 dosage? The answer would be 2 tablets BID, which is 4tablets. Practice make it easy! Let’s move to the next one! 5 CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT Question: The PN/RN plants to administer 1 mg of naloxone IM, the label of the 10 mL vial indicates that the drug concentration is 0.4 mg/ml. How many mL should the PN administer? (Enter numeric value only. If rounding is required, round to the nearest tenth.) Again, to answer such questions, you should understand the question very well! Always find the fixed amount which is the vial/suspension/IV bag/syrup … and compare the required value to it. Here, we have the 10 mL vial with concentration of 0.4 mg/1 mL as the fixed amount, and we need to administer 1 mg out of it, to get 1 mg, let do our equation: 0.4 mg ---- 1 mL 1 mg--------x mL X = 1 x 1 /0.4 = 2.5 mL So if you take 2.5 mL out of the 10 mL vial, the strength that you will be getting is 1 mg, and that’s the answer. 6 CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT Question: The RN/PN is preparing a prescribing dose of erythromycin ethylsuccinate 500 mg PO daily for a child who weighs 44 pounds. The recommended dose is 30 to 50 mg/kg/day in 4 divided doses. The label of the reconstituted medication reads “200 mg / 5 mL”. How many mL should the PN administer? (Enter numeric value only. If rounding is required, round to the nearest tenth.) This question looks so HARD! I know! Don’t be stressed out! Half of the information on it, wont be used at all! Find your fixed amount that the pharmacy supplied, and compare it to the given dose, and the acquirement, you will find that you don’t need anything further! The weight and recommended dose, were added just to make the question looks harder! The pharmacy supplies a medication with a label of 200 mg / 5 mL You need to give 500 mg, the dose hasn’t specify that it has to be per kg, so you just take the dose and compare it to the fixed amount. 200 mg in 5 mL 500 mg in x mL X = 500 * 5 / 200 = 12.5 mL… that’s the answer. 7 CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT The healthcare provider prescribes nitroglycerin 0.6 mg SL PRN for chest pain for a client with chronic stable angina. The medication is available in 0.4 mg tablets. How many tablets should the nurse administer if the client experiences chest pain? Fixed tablet we have is 0.4 mg We need to give 0.6 mg That’s 0.6/0.4 = 1.5 tablets. Don’t forget that usually HESI questions ask only for numeric values, so the answer is 1.5 8 CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT An infant receives a prescription for digoxin injection 26 microgram. The medication is available in a solution of 0.1 mg/mL. How many mL should the nurse administer? Your fixed vial has 0.1 mg per 1 mL But the question is asking you to give 26 microgram! Whenever you have different units, you cant compare and make a direct equation, you have to have the same units. So lets convert 26 microgram into mg! Each 1 mg = 1000 microgram X mg = 26 microgram X - 26/1000 = 0.026 mg So now we can make an equation with the fixed amount we have in the vial. 0.1 mg is available in 1 mL 0.026 mg is available in x X = 0.026 x 1 / 0.1 = 0.26 mL The questions asks us to round the nearest hundredth, and the answer we got is already in the hundredth, so we just put it as is: 0.26 9 CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT Q.: A client ingests three 8-ounce cans of a nutritional supplement in one day. How many mL of nutrition supplement should the nurse add to the client’s fluid intake for the day? If you know that 1 ounce oz = 30 mL, this question should be easy! Intake = 3 * 8 * 30 = 720 P. S. You should know the following as well: 1 cup = 240 mL 1 tablespoon = 15 mL 1 teaspoon = 5 mL 1 pint = 473 mL 10 CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT Q.After a client experience a tonic-clonic seizure. The healthcare provider prescribes phenytoin sodium suspension of 300 mg orally daily. The pharmacy provides phenytoin sodium suspension 125mg/5mL. How many mL should the nurse administer? Again, we have a fixed amount that is supplied from the pharmacy, which is 125 mg in 5 mL, we need to give 300 mg and found out how many mL to give, all same units, just make the equation and go. 125 mg --- 5 mL 300 mg --- x mL X = 300 x 5 / 125 = 12 11 CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT R. The healthcare provider prescribes ampicillin 1 gram PO every 6 hours for a client with an upper respiratory infection. The pharmacy provides ampicillin 250 mg capsules. How many capsules should the nurse administer? Your fixed amount that is supplied from the pharmacy is 250 mg per capsule. The dose is 1 gram, units are not similar, lets convert 1 gram into mg: 1 gram = 1000 mg So we need to give 1000 mg and we have 250 mg per capsule, if you can’t figure it out, just divide 1000 by 250 and you will get the answer, which is 4 12 CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT R. A client reports that she ingested 1/2 of a liter of a prep solution for a colonoscopy. How many mL of fluid intake should the nurse document? To answer this, you should know that 1 Liter = 1000 mL. So half a liter is 500 mL. The answer is 500 Some of the question are just common sense and just answer them within seconds. CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT 13 Q. A home care client has an ongoing prescription for metoprolol 75 mg PO daily. During a home visit, the nurse notes that the maledictions container states that each tablet contains 25 mg and there are 9 tablets remaining. The nurse notifies the client that these are enough tablets left. How many days are left to provide the correct dose? To answer this question, you should calculate the daily dose per tablets,since that what the nurse wants to tell the client about! The daily dose is 75 mg. Each tablet contains 25 mg. You need 3 tablets per dose (daily) 75/25=3 The container has 9 tablets, that’s good for 3 days as 9/3 = 3 The answer is 3 14 CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT Q. the nurse is demonstrating to a client about ways to measure a take home prescription for magnesium hydroxide 15 mL one time per day. Using a calibrated plastic medication cup for return demonstration. How many ounces should the nurse ask the client to measure? You should know that 1 ounce = 30 mL The client needs to take 15 mL, same units, so we could just do a simple math, and you will get that the amount is equal 0.5 ounce. The answer is 0.5 15 CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT Q. A client receives a prescription for progesterone 15 mg IM daily. The medication is labeled “50 mg/mL” how many mL should the nurse administer? Fixed amount = 50 mg / 1 mL Required dose is 15 mg 50 mg ---- 1 mL 15 mg ---- x mL X = 15 x 1/50 = 0.3 The questions asks to round to the nearest tenth and that what we get in the answer already. 16 CHRIS JAY-COPYRIGHT Q. A child experiencing an allergic reaction receives a prescription for epinephrine 0.01 mg/kg subcutaneous. The child weights 66 pounds, and the medication is labeled 1mg/mL.How many mL should the nurse administer to this child? Hence the required dose here is in kg, and we have the weight of the client in pounds, so the 1st thing to do is to convert the weight of the client to kg. 1 kg = 2.2 pounds X kg= 66 pounds X = 66 x1 / 2.2 = 30 kg (note, when converting a weight from pound to kg, the answer should be always about half the amount) The requested dose is 0.01 mg / kg = 0.01 mg x 30 kg = 0.3 mg That’s the dose in mg, but the question needs the dose in mL, to get it, you should compare your mg to the fixed amount available to use, which is 1mg/1mL 1 mg -- 1 mL 0.3 mg -- x mL X = 0.3 mL And that’s the answer, 0.3. so many steps but with practice it should be easy…