Ep 93 Pre-Reg Practice Question 3 - Pediatric Pharmacology Calculations

While the UK and United States have different methods for assessing their health professionals often the calculations and math(s) strategies are the same. I invite you to enjoy this 12-part series on Part 3 of preparing for the Pre-Reg exam but will also help those in the states that are looking to improve their skills in nursing, pharmacy technician, and pharmacist skills. Here's the Memorizing Pharmacology book link:  https://www.audible.com/pd/Memorizing-Pharmacology-Audiobook/B09JVBHRXK?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-281667&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_281667_rh_us Want more options? Find the book here: https://geni.us/iA22iZ  and subscribe to my YouTube Channel  TonyPharmD here: https://www.youtube.com/c/tonypharmd Here is the Link to my Pharmacy Residency Courses:  residency.teachable.com   Auto Generated Transcript: Welcome to the Memorizing Pharmacology podcast. I'm Tony Guerra, pharmacist and author of The Memorizing Pharmacology book series, bringing you mnemonics, cases, and advice for succeeding in Pharmacology. Sign up for the email list at memorizingfarm.com to get your free suffixes cheat sheet or find our mobile-friendly self-paced online pharmacology review course at residency.teachable.com. Let's get started with the show. I took number three because number three is so similar to maybe five or six on that part one and I'm just going to go over it like I would have solved the problem. So, the first thing I don't know if I would have read the whole question if I have just numbers at the end and I know that I'm given the number of bottles. Put on my laser pointer here and I'm given the number of bottles that I'm supposed to have. Well, if I have bottles then I know I have to have some kind of conversion that gets me bottles over here and there's only one conversion: 100 mLs is one bottle. So, I put that there and so now I have the bottles but I have mLs and I need to get rid of those. I only see 250 milligrams per 5 mL and I can put this upside down: 5 mLs over 250 is the same as 250 over 5. So, I put 5 mLs over 250 milligrams to get rid of mLs but now I have milligrams. Is there anything to get rid of the milligrams with? I see 500 milligrams here and this sometimes gives students trouble: four times a day for 10 days. If you think of it as 500 milligrams per dose, four doses a day for 10 days, that might be a little bit easier when it comes to conversions. So, I put 500 milligrams which is in one dose and now I have the milligrams are gone but now I have the doses. So, 500 milligrams from one dose, how many doses per day? Four doses per day. And then I run into trouble because there are three: 10 days, 7 days, and five days parts where I would need to know okay well which of those is right? So now, I might read the question slowly and carefully through to better understand after I'd set it up and I would never do the math ahead of time. I always set everything up first before I even attempt the math. So, the question reads: Number three you receive a prescription for a 76-year-old patient for phenoxy methyl penicillin 250 milligrams per 5 mLs oral solution, 500 milligrams four times a day for 10 days. You inform the patient that due to the medication's short life of seven days once it is prepared you will fulfill part of the prescription and supply the remainder at a later date. The patient agrees to take enough for five days today and will call back for the remainder. What is the correct number of 100 mL prepared bottles that you would be supplying today? And what you would put maybe in your own header to write down would be versus total. So what I would do is actually calculate both of them to make sure that you didn't get stuck in that trap because that's what it is it's asking you which of those should you put here is it the five, the seven or the ten to get rid of this day? And the correct number of bottles you'll be supplying today would be five days. And if we do our multiplication and personally, I would get rid of the 500 and 250 by putting a two here and a one here so I could do it in my head: Five times four times two times five makes two hundred so forty times two makes eighty eighty times five makes no five times four is twenty twenty times two is forty forty times five is two hundred. And then here, I would have one there so it'd just be a hundred so two hundred over a hundred makes two but then I would also calculate versus total now if you're in the test you don't have to do this obviously it's extra time that you need but to check my work. I would say okay but what would the total have been so that i know that i have enough on shelf or on the shelf to fill the order when it's when the patient comes back in five days and total would be for ten days so i could do calculation again ten times four forty forty times two eighty eighty times five four hundred over hundred makes four bottles or i could just say oh if it's five days and i double that to ten and two bottles doubles to four bottles either way you get answer but that's how i think i would solve that one. And i think mistake many students make when they start doing calculations is they think it's like math they've done all their lives which is what's three plus three plus four well you take three then add three then four so you get six plus four is ten and they're adding from left to right with these calculations you want to go from right to left it makes it so much easier because they've already given you this gift of units for answer so if you have units for answer only choice has to match in some way units for answer and then that takes you backwards until you get whole equation built from left to right how much you would finally do calculation. Thanks for listening to the Memorizing Pharmacology podcast. You can find episodes, cheat sheets, and more at memorizingfarm.com. Again, you can sign up for the email list at memorizingfarm.com to get your free suffixes cheat sheet or find our mobile-friendly self-paced online pharmacology review course at residency.teachable.com. Thanks again for listening. Thank you! Like to learn more? Find my book here: https://geni.us/iA22iZ or here: https://www.audible.com/pd/B01FSR7HLE/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-059486&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_059486_rh_us and subscribe to YouTube Channel TonyPharmD here: https://www.youtube.com/c/tonypharmd Here is the Link to my Pharmacy Residency Courses:  residency.teachable.com