Nursing Elgin Community College Elgin, Illinois

NUR 242 Concepts of Nursing Practice III

Dosage Calculations Three Step Process

Objective: Using dimensional analysis, correctly calculate problems involving a specific

medication or intravenous fluid based on weight of the patient and time required for safe
administration in both the adult and/or pediatric patient.

Content: Being able to calculate three factor quantity medication problems safely and quickly is
necessary for effective medication administration in critically ill patients. First, you must be able
to understand all of the components of the medication order. Then, you must calculate the
dosage of the medication based on the weight of the patient and the time required for safe
administration.

Since you all have been successfully using Dimensional Analysis thus far, this three step process
can be simplified by placing the ordered dose in the top position (numerator) of your
calculation and the weight and time, as equal partners, in the bottom position (denominator)
of the calculation. As always with DA, know first and foremost what the problem is asking for.

___________ Dose__________ =
Weight-------------------Time _____________ what is needed

Once this is set-up, you can plug in your conversion factors (as required). First, multiply the
numerators; then multiply the denominators. Now, divide the product of the numerators by the
product of the denominators to achieve the desired result.

Reading:
Mulholland, J. and Turner, S. The Nurse. The Math. The Meds. Drug Calculations Using
Dimentional Analysis. 2015. pp. 354-360.

You will be responsible for calculating IV pump rates when in the clinical setting. On the HESI and
NCLEX, you will need to be able to compute IV drops per minute.

After reading the material and completing the practice problems, should you have any questions
regarding this process, please make an appointment to meet an instructor for further
clarifications.