Going into my first semester I was so nervous about the math. I was never great at math but I knew that this was something I needed to know and it’s a survival skill as a Nurse! Since I knew this math test was going to be happening I bought the recommended dosage calculations book and started to look it over and get into the math questions during the summer. I defiantly didn’t have the math down perfect when I started but I worked at it. I found ways to remember the conversions and also found ways to remember how many milligrams are in 1 gram. Let me tell you practice, practice, practice. I know that math can be frustrating it still is for me but you need to put time into it and become confident in your math skills. Math WILL NOT GO AWAY in nursing. It is always there. You will have a math test every semester!! You should actually be happy about learning these skills because down the road you may be in the situation where you need to do a conversion. Yes there are computers but what if the system breaks down…hey it could happen.
Some of the faculty homepages have great math problems on them. Check out Valerie Freundl’s homepage under resources. She has many great math links! I used them!!! Deb Krings also has math problems for incoming second semester students!I know it is summer but I really think that getting started on the math is a great way to get rid of some of the stress that goes with starting a semester with new classes!!
