Lessons · Nursing · a daily dose split across the day
A daily dose split across the day
A total per day is shared among the doses; the schedule's interval tells you how many there are: every 8 hours is 24 / 8 = 3 doses.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
An order reads 1500 mg a day in three divided doses, and the MAR shows three times: 0600, 1400, 2200. The amount in each box is the day's total divided by three. The other way round, an every-six-hours order adds up to a daily total that the next shift needs to know.
How to think about it
Find the number of doses first: 24 hours divided by the interval, or the number the order states. Then divide the daily total by that number for the per-dose amount, or multiply a per-dose amount by it for the daily total.
Worked example
Ordered 1500 mg/day, given every 8 hoursA daily total, and an interval.
Doses per day = 24 / 8 = 3Twenty-four hours, eight apart. Three doses.
Per dose = 1500 / 3 = 500 mgThe total shared three ways.
Ordered 200 mg every 12 hours: 24 / 12 = 2 doses; 200 × 2 = 400 mg/dayThe other direction: a per-dose order, and the day's total.
Your turn
1200 mg/day given every 6 hours. Write the per-dose line.
1200 / = 300 mg
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Reading 'every 8 hours' as eight doses. Twenty-four hours divided by the interval is the number of doses, and it is three. Eight doses of a three-dose day is nearly three times the total.