Pediatric Dosage Calculations | Dosage Calculations Practice Problems

In this video, we are going to walk through how to do pediatric dosage calculations for nursing school. We will walk you through a simple step by step process to get pediatric calculations right every single time on your nursing school exams. And of course we have a full dosage calculations cheat sheet that walks you through this simple six step process for getting dose calc questions right every single time. So don't worry friend, you do not need to figure everything out alone anymore for nursing school. We are here to help you out every step of the way. So that link to that cheat sheet is right down below in the description. And if you want a deep dive into this six step process, be sure to check this video out along with all of the other videos in this dose calc series here on YouTube. Now our lead nurse on our team, Nicole is going to walk you through these pediatric dosage calculation practice problems. So hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell and let's dive in.

All right, so let's talk about how we're going to solve pediatric dosage calculation. A lot of times these require safe dosage and they require mgs per keg. So we'll talk about those. We'll go through these three problems together and then there are tons of practice problems for you to feel super confident on these on your own. We are going to start out of course, with our six steps right up here. So step number one, figure out what we need. Number two, what the order is. Number three, decide what conversions you need. Number four, solve the problem. Number five, write the answer out appropriately. And number six, check your work. So let's go ahead and get started with number one. Danielle, your three year old patient is prescribed 10 mgs per kilogram of Motrin. She weighs 32 pounds. How many milligrams of Motrin will you give her? Round to the nearest whole number. So let's start out, what do we need? So we need to know how many milligrams. So that is going to be our unit at the end. We need milligrams. What do we have? We have 10 milligrams per keg. So that right there, 10 milligrams per keg per kilogram. So we know our conversions. What we have is her weight is in pounds. So we know we're going to have pounds up here is going to be right here. We know we're going to need to get 2kg. So we're going to do 1kg equals 2.2lbs here. We know we can cross off our kilograms here and then we need to get to our milligrams. So we need to get how many milligrams per kilogram she needs is right here. And then we need, we know she's 32 pounds, we need to cross off our pounds here. So we're going to put our 32 pounds here over one. And this is going to be able to get us to cross off our pounds, cross off our kilograms and we're going to end up with milligrams. So cross off our kilograms, cross off our pounds, we're going to end up with our milligrams. 10 times 32 equals 320 and then multiply across the bottom is just 2.2. And this is going to be 145.45 milligrams. And now back to our rounding round to the nearest whole number. So we're going to round down. So 145 milligrams is going to be our answer. All right, so let's go ahead and move on to number two. The APRN puts in a new order for Prevacid for Tyler, your three month old patient. He's ordered for 4mg bid. The medical assistant just weighed Tyler before his feed and he's £10. You need to make sure the dose is safe. Your drug guide states that a safe dose is between 1.5 and 2.5 milligrams per kilogram per day. Is this dose appropriate? So this is a multi step problem. So what we need is going to be milligrams, because what we need to know is if is his milligrams safe between these two? So that's gonna be our end unit, milligrams. Now we are given a dose that's ordered 4mg bid. So that's twice a day. And what we have is 1.5 to 2.5 milligrams per kilogram per day. So what we're gonna need to do is make sure our end dose is in the same unit. So whether it's per dose or per day, we just need to make sure that we make sure our units line up. Let's go ahead and get started. So we know he's ten pounds, we know we need to get to kilograms and we know we need 4 milligrams. That's our number that we need to check. So what we are going to do is start by getting our pounds to kilograms and then we'll get our milligrams in there as well. So our first conversion, he is £10. 10 and we need to get to pounds here. So we're going to do 1 kg equals 2.2 pounds. That way we can cross off our pounds and we're left with kilograms. Now, we know we're going to check our low end. So that's going to be 1.5 milligrams per kilogram kilogram, 1.5 milligrams per one kilogram. This is going to be our low end of our safe dosage range. So we're going to go ahead and cross off our kilograms here. So we are left with milligrams, which is what we need. We're going to multiply across the top equals 15, multiply across the bottom equals 2.2, and then we're going to get 15 divided by 2.2 equals 6.818, or rounding 6.82 mgs per kg mg per day. Because remember, this dose is in per day, so we are giving it to him twice a day. So then we're just going to divide this by two and we are going to get our safe dose for one bid. So, safe dose for this is going to be 3.41 milligrams per dose. So that is our low end of our safe dosage range. Now, let's go ahead and solve it the same way, but put in our 2.5mg to make sure his dose is safe within the high range. So again, he is 10 pounds. We are going to get to kilograms. So we're going to do 1 kg over 2.2 pounds. That's going to cross off our pounds here. Then we are going to do 2.5mg per 1kg instead. To make sure we make sure that is safe per 1 kg kg kg cross off, we are left with milligrams. So 10 times 2.5 is going to be 25 divided by 2.2. This is going to give us 11.36 milligrams per day. Again, we need to get per dose. So we're going to divide it by 2 and that is going to give us 5.68 milligrams per dose. So now we have our 3.4 milligrams per dose and our 5.68 milligrams per Dose. His dose twice a day needs to be within that and it is. So we are safe. So we are good. All right, let's move on to number three. Your patient, Chris, is ordered for Tylenol 85mg Q6 hours around the clock. Following his hernia repair Yesterday, he is 15 pounds and 26 inches tall. Your drug guide states that a safe dose for Tylenol is 10 to 15 milligrams per kilogram per dose. Is Chris's dose safe? So, again, let's start with our steps. What do we need? So our end dose, we need to make sure it's safe and we need his doses in milligrams, so we need to make sure our unit matches at the end and that it's milligrams. Now, let's go with our conversions. What is ordered is going to be 85 milligrams. And what we need to get to, because we have 10 to 15 milligrams per kilogram per dose, we're going to need his 85 milligrams, we're going to need his weight, we don't need his height, we'll need his weight. And then we have this 10 to 15 per dose. So let's start by getting our weight to the correct units and then we will get our milligrams in. So he is 15 pounds and we need to get to kilograms. So we're going to do 1kg over 2.2lbs, cross off our pounds here, and then we are going to need 10 milligrams as our low end. So 10 milligrams over one kilo, cross off our kilos here, multiply across the top, multiply across the bottom, and we are going to be able to get 150 divided by 2.2 equals 6.81, 68.18 milligrams. That is our low dose because it's our 10 milligrams. Now let's go ahead and get our high dose. So we're going to do the same thing, except with 15 milligrams. So 15 pounds and we're going to get it to kilograms. So 1 kilogram over 2.2 pounds, we're able to cross off our pounds here. Then we need 15 milligrams per kilogram to check our high end. So we're going to do 15 milligrams over one kilogram, cross off our kilograms here. So 15 times 15, it's going to be 225 divided by 2.2 equals 102.27. So these are going to be per dose, both of these, because that is what our order is in. So it's milligrams per dose, milligrams per dose, and that is what his is ordered in. 85 milligrams. Q6 hours. So per dose is our 85 milligrams in between the 68 to the 102? Yes. So we are good. We are safe. So hopefully this was helpful for you.

Now I am so excited to finally let you know about something that we have been keeping secret for a while now. We have a brand new dosage calculations course that we just released. It walks you through everything that you will need to know for your dose calc exam. Things like how to calculate IVs, how to do weight based dosage calculations, reconstitution problems, heparin drip calculations. All of it. So if you are frustrated because you have to figure everything out yourself in nursing school friend, don't worry. We will teach you everything you need to know about dose calc in this course. Now the link is down below for you to check it out. Now be sure to like comment, subscribe and share this video with a friend who might also need dosage calculation help. And check out these videos right over here so you can keep rocking nursing school and go become the nurse that God created only you to be now. Catch you in the next video. Take care friend. Bye bye.