Nursing Calculations and IV Therapy For Dummies, UK Edition

Claire Boyd

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781119114161
• eBook ISBN: 9781119114406
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Nursing Skills

The fast and easy way to pass the Nursing Calculations test

Is the maths behind the medicine making you maudlin over taking your Nursing Calculations test? You've come to the right place! Written by a nurse with countless hours of experience—and who trains other nurses every day—this plain-English, no-nonsense guide to nursing calculations and IV therapy makes it easier to come to grips with the numbers and formulas you'll encounter on the day of the exam—and in the field.

Many students and practising nurses struggle with mathematics. Luckily, this friendly guide is here to take the intimidation out of the subject, arming you with the knowledge and know-how you need to take the exam with confidence and to achieve the best score possible. From fractions, percentages, and proportions to pills, fluids, and prescriptions, Nursing Calculations & IV Therapy For Dummies UK edition offers detailed advice and instruction on everything you need to know to pass the exam with flying colours.

• Hundreds of practise questions help you learn and revise
• Clear explanations and lack of jargon make learning easy
• Observation charts and extra content are available for download upon purchase
• Combines nursing calculations and IV therapy to offer excellent value

Whether you're a student revising for the Nursing Calculations test, a newly qualified nurse looking to brush up on your maths skills, or a member of a medical staff who's been asked to take on nursing duties, this friendly and accessible guide makes maths less menacing.

Part I

Getting Started with Nursing Calculations and IV Therapy

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In this part …

Use the practice-makes-perfect theory and check your understanding of working with fractions and decimals.

Become familiar with working with percentages, averages and ratios, because these skills are often used in healthcare to give a quick indication of specific quantity and when making comparisons.

Know how to use moles, millimoles and solution concentrates in order to describe the amount of substance and for electrolyte measurements: for example, ‘body sodium levels 133–146 mmol/l’.

Interpret doctors’ instructions on prescription charts and medical terminology, including the 24-hour clock, so that when administering medications you know that ‘0800 hours’ means ‘8:00 a.m.’ and ‘20:00’ hours means ‘8:00 p.m.’, to avoid any confusion.

Chapter 1

Getting the Lowdown on Nursing Calculations and IV Therapy

In This Chapter

Understanding the basic maths required for healthcare

Knowing IV therapy and its correct administration

Being clear on complications

Intravenous (IV) therapy is one of the most common clinical skills that healthcare professionals perform. It includes administering IV drugs, fluid replacement (including blood and blood products), cytotoxic therapy (chemotherapy) and parenteral nutrition (which doesn’t mean your mum and dad providing a hot meal when you pop home to get your washing done (!) but feeding ‘not via the alimentary canal’). Intravenous therapy can also take the form of administering emergency fluids and medications, such as when individuals have sustained huge blood loss, and/or to convert heart arrhythmias back to sinus rhythm.

In this chapter, I describe how this book takes you through the whole IV process – showing you how to walk before you can run. I help you get to grips with the mathematics and formulae necessary to work out the amounts of drugs or fluids to administer through the main routes, including oral, and translating doctors’ written instructions (which can be tricky at the best of times!).

This book also describes the types of IV therapy and how they can relate to patients’ blood tests obtained by venepuncture (flip to Chapter 11 for more) as well as their medical condition. I explore methods of getting the medications into the IV route as well as looking at the legal and professional aspects of IV therapy and complications associated with specific routes of administration.

Whatever your reason for entering healthcare, you share a common goal with all nurses and other healthcare professionals. You want to make your sick patients better, keep your healthy patients healthy and provide high-quality care to people, including those at their end-of-life journey.

This aim is encompassed...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Part I: Getting Started with Nursing Calculations and IV Therapy
• Part II: Working Out Tablet and Liquid Dosages
• Part III: Figuring Out Infusion Rates for IV Therapy
• Part IV: Testing Your Calculations and IV Knowledge
• Part V: The Part of Tens
• About the Author
• Cheat Sheet
• Connect with Dummies
• End User License Agreement