Calculation Skills for Nurses

Providing nursing students with words of wisdom and advice from real-life student nurses, Calculation Skills for Nurses enables you to calculate drug dosages with ease, boosting your confidence and competence in this core area of nursing practice. The book takes away the fear of calculations, making it approachable, easy and fun, and ties in with the NMC standards for pre-registration education and the Essential Skills Clusters. It is filled with examples and questions based on real life nursing and healthcare situations and includes key information displayed on the inside back cover for quick look-up on clinical placements.

Providing nursing students with words of wisdom and advice from real-life student nurses, Calculation Skills for Nurses enables you to calculate drug dosages with ease, boosting your confidence and competence in this core area of nursing practice. The book takes away the fear of calculations, making it approachable, easy and fun, and ties in with the NMC standards for pre-registration education and the Essential Skills Clusters. It is filled with examples and questions based on real life nursing and healthcare situations and includes key information displayed on the inside back cover for quick look-up on clinical placements.

Preface viiIntroduction ixAcknowledgements xiiiLatin Abbreviations xvThe 24-Hour Clock xviiPart 1: Diagnosis 11 Calculations Revision 32 Calculations Self-Assessment 23Part 2: Understanding Nursing Calculations 273 Metric Units and Conversions 294 Tablets and Capsules 335 Liquids and Injectables 396 Syringes and Meniscus 477 Displacement Values 578 Dosages According to Body Weight 639 Drip Rates 6710 Drip-Rate Duration 7311 Syringe Drivers and Pumps 7712 Paediatric Nursing 85Part 3: Putting It All into Practice 9713 Fluid Charts 9914 Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) Assessment 10515 Early Warning Score (EWS) Assessment 10916 Waterlow Assessment 11517 Prescription Charts 11918 Looking at Budgets 12519 Interpreting Data 12920 Employment Services 13521 Body Mass Index 139Part 4: Testing Your Knowledge 14322 Knowledge Tests 145Answers to Activity Questions 153PART 5: APPENDICES 163Appendix 1: Fluid Chart 165Appendix 2: Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool 169Appendix 3: Bristol Observation Chart 177Appendix 4: Waterlow Pressure Ulcer Prevention/Treatment Policy 179Appendix 5: Conversion Tables 181Bibliography 183Index 185