Copyright © 2015 Cengage Learning® Chapter 6 Oral Medication Labels and Dosage Calculation

Copyright © 2015 Cengage Learning®

Chapter 6

Oral Medication Labels and Dosage Calculation

Copyright © 2015 Cengage Learning®Copyright © 2015 Cengage Learning®

Average Doses

• Most oral dosages consist of half to three tablets or capsules or half to double the mL volume in liquid medications.

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Safety Points

• Question any prescriptions that require unusual number of tablets or capsules.– More than three

• Be mindful of errors in prescribing, transcribing, or calculating.

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Solid Oral Drug Preparations

• Tablets

• Scored tablets– Indented marking to make breaking for partial drug

dosages easier and more accurate

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Solid Oral Drug Preparations (cont’d)

• Enteric coated tablets– Delayed absorption until medication reaches small

intestine

• Capsules– Powdered or oily medications in gelatin cover

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Solid Oral Drug Preparations (cont’d)

• Sustained or controlled-release capsules– Action of medication spread over prolonged period of

time

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Tablet and Capsule Labels

• Unit dosage label in which each tablet or capsule is packaged separately– Most common label in clinical setting

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Tablet and Capsule Labels (cont’d)

• Each drug has only one official name but may have several trade names, created by the companies that produce them.

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Drug Label Information

• Trade or brand name– Capitalized

• Generic or official name– Lowercase

• Strength in metric measure– Always has unit of measure

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Drug Label Information (cont’d)

• Manufacturers are continuing to correct the following on drug labels:– “gr” for gram, which is being eliminated from use in

health care

– Inserting a space between the dosage and the unit of measure, such as “500 mg” instead of “500 mg”

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Drug Label Information (cont’d)

• Manufacturer

• Lot number

• Expiration date– Must check before administering

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Other Label Information

• If drug is in a multiple dose container, number of tablets or capsules in container will be on label.

• United States Pharmacopeia (USP) or National Formulary (NF) may be on multiple dose containers.

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Caution

• Learn to question orders for more than 3 tablets or capsules.

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Liquid Oral Medications

• In addition to aforementioned label information, labels for liquid oral medications state dosage strength in both:– Unit of measure

• For example, mg, mcg, g, etc.

– Amount of dosage strength in mL of fluid

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Liquid Oral Medications (cont’d)

• Smaller volumes may be measured in oral or hypodermic (without needle) syringes.

• Larger volumes are usually measured in calibrated medication cup:– 20 mL or more

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Multiple Drug Preparations

• Preparations containing multiple drugs list name and dosage of each drug.– For example, Percocet™ contains oxycodone 5 mg and

acetaminophen 325 mg

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Multiple Drug Preparations (cont’d)

• Tablets and capsules that contain more than one drug are usually prescribed by trade name and number of tablets/capsules to be given.– For example, Percocet™ 5 mg

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Safety Points

• Some dosage strengths contain both metric and apothecary (gr) measures.

• Read labels carefully.

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Safety Points (cont’d)

• Labels will not state amount of tablets/capsules or solution contained in prescribed dose.

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Safety Points (cont’d)

• When using calibrated medicine cup for liquid oral medications:– Pour safely at eye level.

– Always read calibrations carefully.• Some contain several seldom-used units of measure.

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Tablet/Capsule/Oral Liquid Medication Calculation

• Use basic formula:

• D = desired or dosage prescribed

• H = have/on hand

• Q = quantity

• X = unknown

DH

Q X

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Conversions

• Conversions are necessary if medication is prescribed in one unit of metric measure and available (labeled) medication is in another unit of metric measure.

• Make conversions before using basic formula.

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Copyright © 2015 Cengage Learning® Chapter 6 Oral Medication Labels and Dosage Calculation