Safety Rules & 4-Step Method
This severe clinical error can occur if you misplace a single decimal point or invert a dosage fraction
What is a 10× overdose?
The metric prefix "kilo-" represents this multiplier relative to the base unit
What is 1,000 times?
Standard time 2:30 PM converted to 24-hour military time
What is 1430?
On a drug bottle label, "Amoxicillin / Clavulanate Potassium" is the generic name for this brand name medication
What is Augmentin?
Physician orders Tylenol 650 mg PO. Available strength is 325 mg per tablet. You dispense this many tablets
What is 2 tablets?
Step 1 of the official 4-Step Safety Method requires you to start with this specific item
What is what the physician ordered (the doctor's prescription)?
To convert a measurement from a larger unit to a smaller unit (e.g., grams to milligrams), you do this math operation
What is multiply (by the conversion factor)?
Military time 0015 expressed in standard 12-hour clock format
What is 12:15 AM?
An Augmentin oral suspension bottle reads "125 mg / 5 mL". This indicates this medication specification
What is the dosage strength / concentration?
Liquid Amoxicillin is ordered at 300 mg PO. Available concentration is 150 mg / 5 mL. This is the liquid volume to draw
What is 10 mL?
In healthcare math, writing a number without its unit label (e.g., "5" instead of "5 mg") is called this
What is a "naked number"?
The exact number of milligrams contained in an Amoxicillin order of 1.5 grams
What is 1,500 mg?
An IV medication is ordered every 6 hours starting at 0900. These are the next three administration times
What are 1500, 2100, and 0300?
A Medrol bottle contains 16 mg tablets. A doctor orders "Medrol 64 mg PO now". You dispense this many tablets
What is 4 tablets?
he mandatory Step 1 in any weight-based pediatric calculation for a child weighing 66 lb
What is convert 66 lb to kilograms
According to the Safety Method, this step proves that your mathematical equation is set up correctly before solving
What is cancelling matching units in the numerator and denominator?
When converting patient body weight from pounds (lb) to kilograms (kg), you divide by this conversion factor
What is 2.2?
A firefighter's 12-hour shift begins at 1800. An emergency call comes in at 0300. This is how many hours into the shift the call occurred
What is 9 hours?
Synthroid tablets are 137 mcg (0.137 mg). If a patient takes 0.274 mg daily, a 90-tablet bottle will last this many days
What is 45 days?
A 30 kg pediatric patient is ordered Prednisolone 8 mg/kg. This is the total dose in milligrams required
What is 240 mg?
The four sequential steps of the standardized dimensional analysis pattern in exact order
1. What is ordered
2. What you know
3. Cancel Units
4. Solve Straight Across
The mass equivalent of 137 micrograms (mcg) of Synthroid expressed in milligrams (mg)
What is 0.137 mg?
A nurse scheduled to give a dose at 2145 documents it as 0945 instead. This was the specific clinical error made
What is documenting as AM instead of PM (a 12-hour error)?
Neurontin oral solution is supplied as 250 mg per 5 mL. This is the volume needed to administer a 125 mg dose
What is 2.5 mL?
A pharmacy tech calculated a 400 mg dose using 200 mg/5 mL available and got 16,000 mL. This was their setup mistake
What is inverting the concentration fraction