Dosage calculation practice problems with answers

• Unit conversion practice problems for nursing students

  A conversion problem asks you to restate a dose, a weight or a volume in another unit, such as milligrams in grams or fluid ounces in milliliters. The arithmetic is a single factor. The easy slip is turning that factor upside down, and then the answer is off by the factor squared: a million times between milligrams and grams.

• Tablet and capsule dosage calculation practice problems

  An oral solid problem asks how many tablets or capsules make up one dose, given the order and the strength printed on the label. Two traps recur: an order written in milligrams against a label in micrograms, and a capsule, which cannot be split, so the answer has to come out whole.

• Oral liquid dosage calculation practice problems

  An oral liquid problem asks how many milliliters of a solution or suspension carry the ordered dose. The label gives a concentration, such as 250 mg per 5 mL, and the order gives the dose. Watch the volume in that concentration: it is not always 1 mL.

• Injectable dosage calculation practice problems

  An injectable problem asks how many milliliters to draw up from a vial labeled by concentration, such as 10 mg per 1 mL or 300 mg per 3 mL. The volumes are often under 1 mL, where a decimal point one place out turns 0.5 mL into 5 mL.

• Reconstitution dosage calculation practice problems

  A reconstitution problem starts with a powder. The label says what concentration the vial holds once a stated diluent is added, for example 250 mg per milliliter, and the question is how many milliliters of that solution carry the ordered dose. Read the concentration after mixing rather than the amount of diluent.

• mL per hr IV rate practice problems

  An mL per hr problem asks what rate to set on an infusion pump. Sometimes it is a volume over a time, such as 1,000 mL over 10 hours. Sometimes it is a dose rate, such as 20 mcg/min, carried through the bag's concentration and turned from minutes into hours.

• IV drip rate practice problems (gtt/min)

  A drip rate problem asks how many drops per minute to count when an infusion runs by gravity. Multiply the volume in milliliters by the tubing's drop factor in drops per milliliter, then divide by the time in minutes. Drops are counted whole, so these answers are rounded to the whole number.

• Infusion time practice problems

  An infusion time problem asks how long a volume takes at a given rate: the volume in milliliters divided by the rate in milliliters per hour. The result is often not a whole number of hours, so the rounding rule often decides the answer you write down.

• Weight-based dosing practice problems (mg/kg)

  A weight-based problem scales an order written per kilogram, such as 15 mg per kilogram, to the patient's weight, which is often given in pounds first. Using the weight in pounds as if it were kilograms makes the dose 2.2 times too large. These problems do not cover checking an order against a pediatric safe-dose range.

Every problem here is taken from DoseReady's own problem set and worked by the app's own code, so the numbers match what the app shows. Each problem is built from published US drug labeling or a named clinical reference, listed under its solution, and its answer key is checked against its own worked solution before it ships.

Every answer here is rounded once, at the end, under one stated rule: nearest tenth, half rounds up, except tablets and capsules, rates in milliliters per hour and drip rates in drops per minute, which go to the nearest whole number, half rounds up. Your program's rule may differ, and on an exam it is the one that counts.

No licensed clinician has reviewed the problem set. Where a problem and its source disagree, trust the source and what your program teaches. Exam practice, never for patient care.