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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
With trailing zeros. For example, 1 milligram should be written as 1 mg instead of 1.0 mg to reduce the risk of the dosage being mistaken for 10 mg. However, if the dose is less than one unit, a zero must be included before the decimal point, often called a leading zero. For example, half a milligram should be written as 0.5 mg instead of .5 mg to reduce the risk of the dosage being mistaken for 5 mg.Real RN Stories: Ensuring Correct DosageNurse: Sarah, BSNClinical setting: Orthopedic unitTime in practice: 2 monthsFacility Location: The inner city of a small metropolitan area in New JerseyI was a newly graduated nurse who had been working on the orthopedic floor for several weeks. Being new to the department, I had not yet become familiar with the typical medication orders written by the orthopedic surgeons. After morning rounds, Dr. Black notified me that Mrs. James was experiencing severe pain, and a new order was placed for IV Dilaudid. Dr. Black requested that Mrs. James receive a dose right away, without delay.I opened the chart and read the order as hydromorphone (Dilaudid) 5 mg IV Q2 hours PRN severe pain. A copy of the order was sent to the pharmacy for processing. Remembering the medication could be overridden in the automated medication dispensing machine, I decided to go ahead and administer the medication before the pharmacy processed the order, because Mrs. James was in severe pain and shouldn’t have to wait for pain medicine.After
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