Medication Dosages for Pills

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Medication Dosages
Giving the Right Number of Pills

Calculating medication dosages for pills is the most common math you will be doing in your career. If you plan to work in a hospital setting, you will give hundreds of thousands of pills over your career.

When a practitioner orders a medication, that specific dosage may not be available to you. While the pharmacy department will do their calculations, it is your responsibility as the bedside nurse to make sure your patient get the correct dosage.

Calculating how many pills your patient will need is very easy. It is all about basic division. Are you ready for it? Here is the only formula you will need for calculating medication dosages in the pill form.

Calculating Pill Dosages

Here are some Examples

1. The doctor orders 75mg of Toprol XL PO daily. Your pharmacy has only 25mg Toprol XL pills. How many do you give?

Calculating Pill Dosages

OK! Here is another:

2. The doctor orders 5mg of Coumadin PO nightly. You have 10mg Coumadin pills. Tell me what to give:

Calculating Pill Dosages

A note about splitting pills--Not all pills can be split. Make sure you check with the pharmacy if you are unsure if it is safe to split a pill or not. As a general rule, most pills that are scored (indented line in the middle) can be split safely, but NOT ALL. So again, be on the safe side and CHECK WITH THE PHARMACIST.

Another Free Example for you!

3. The doctor orders 80mg PO Lasix x1 stat. You have 20mg pills of lasix. What to do?

Calculating Pill Dosages

Do your PATIENTS a favor here! Most people don’t like swallowing pills. First, have another nurse double check your calculations anytime you need to give more than 2 pills or you are unsure of your math. I STILL do this because patient safety should be a top priority! Second, talk to your pharmacist about alternatives. In the example above, there may be 40mg lasix pills available instead of 20mg pills. If so, your patient would only have to swallow 2 instead of 4. Much better!

Last example:

4. The doctor orders 0.125mg of digoxin PO daily. Your pharmacy has 0.0625mg pills. How much do you give? HINT—DO NOT PANIC b/c OF DECIMALS. Use the same formula!