hey everyone it's sarah with registerednessrn.com and in this video i'm going to be solving capsule and tablet dosage calculations using the desired over have method and after you get done watching this youtube video you can access the free quiz that will test you on this content so let's get started the problem says the physician ordered two milligrams by mouth daily and we're supplied with one milligram tablets so we need to solve for how many tablets we're going to give per dose so we're going to use the desire over have method now there's other methods you can use to solve dosage calculations you can use the ratio proportion or you can use dimensional analysis i actually have a whole series where i solve different types of dosage calculations using dimensional analysis now the method you use really depends on your preference and what your nursing program may require you to use to solve for these so let's plug in what we have so first we're going to start with plugging in the desired part this is what is desired for the patient to have so this is the ordered dose that we're going to plug in there so we're ordered to give the patient two milligrams the h is the have part this is what you have on hand what you've been dispensed from pharmacy with so you're holding the medication you're looking at that medication label and you're looking at the strength of that medication it tells us that it's one milligram now we're going to multiply that by the quantity the quantity is the amount or volume of that dosage strength that we're supplied with so that's also found on the medication label so here if we're looking at this bottle of tablets it would tell us that every tablet one tablet equals one milligram so our quantity is one so one tablet equals x and that's what we're solving for for the dose so before we even try to solve this formula we have to make sure that these units match up and if they do they can cancel out and we solve here it does so we mark them out now if they didn't we would have to take an extra step and convert and you'll see how to do that a little bit later so we're going to divide 2 divided by 1 is 2 times 1 we're bringing that down from our formula equals x two times one is two so our answer is two tablets that's how many we're going to administer to the patient this problem says the physician orders 0.5 milligrams by mouth daily and we're supplied with 125 micrograms per tablet and we're trying to figure out how many tablets per dose so let's plug in our information into our formula so the first part is the d part the desired what is it desired for the patient to have that is the ordered dose so the patient has been ordered 0.5 milligrams and that's going to be over half what we have on hand so we've been dispensed with this medication we're looking at that medication label and it tells us that there is a 125 micrograms in these tablets so that's our strength so we're going to multiply that by the quantity and the quantity is one tablet because one tablet equals 125 micrograms so that equals x so that's what we're solving for now we can't finish out this formula because these units right here do not match so you always want to double check that before you start solving so to make them match we have to convert and this is that extra step we need to take so what we need to figure out is 0.5 milligrams equals how many micrograms well this is where we pull from that metric table that we have memorized so we know from the metric table that one milligram is equal to a thousand micrograms so there's one of two ways you can solve this it's really whatever you prefer so one way is you can just multiply 0.5 times a thousand and that gives us 500 micrograms so 0.5 milligrams equals 500 micrograms or you can use the decimal method and whenever you use this it's just a quick fast method instead of multiplying you just move the decimal so because we're multiplying by a thousand and we're going from milligrams which is a bigger unit to a smaller unit which is micrograms we want to move our decimal three places because we're going because we're multiplying by a thousand to the right so you have 0.5 so it would be 1 2 3. and your decimal goes there and that 0 goes away so you get 500 micrograms so whatever method you find easier is what you would do so we've converted that now we're ready to plug that fresh information we just collected back into this formula and solve so we have 500 micrograms which was the same as this and on hand we have 125 micrograms and micrograms cancels out that makes us happy because we know we are ready to solve we're going to multiply that by one tablet and that solves for x so divide that out 500 divided by 125 is 4 times 1 tablet and we know that 4 times 1 is 4. so our answer is 4 tablets is what we will administer to that patient this problem says the physician orders 750 micrograms by mouth daily and we're supplied with from pharmacy with 0.25 milligrams per tablet and we need to figure out how many tablets we're going to give per dose so let's plug it into our formula first we're going to start with the d the desired so it's desired for the patient the order dose is 750 micrograms and that is over h have what we have on hand so what we have on hand we look at the medication label it tells us that there's a strength of 0.25 milligrams and we're already looking at this formula and we're like hey we're going to have to take an extra step and convert because these units are not matching up we have micrograms here milligrams there but we'll finish filling out our formula we're going to multiply that by the quantity and we know that it's one tablet equals 0.25 milligrams so one tablet and then that equals x and that's what we're solving for that's ours to be given so we're going to take that extra step and convert since we're dealing with milligrams we're holding milligram tablets we're going to convert the doctor's order that's in micrograms into milligrams so what we need to figure out is 750 micrograms equals how many milligrams so this is where we access that metric table from our memory bank and we know from that that one milligram equals a thousand micrograms so there's one of two ways you can do this it depends on what you like to do we can take 750 and divide by a thousand now the reason we're dividing is because we are going from a smaller unit which is micrograms hence micro to a little bit of a larger one which is milligrams so this time we're going to divide by a thousand so whenever you divide that out you get 0.75 so 750 micrograms equals 0.75 milligrams now an easy trick you can do instead of having to do all that you can just move a decimal so you have 750 whenever you have that your decimal is right there we don't normally write it like that but that's where the decimal hangs out and because we are dividing by a thousand we're going to go left with our decimal movement and we're going to go three places because we're dividing by a thousand so it would go one two three decimal would be there and your number would look like this 0.75 hence like that so we have converted now we're ready to go back to our formula and solve so 750 micrograms is 0.75 milligrams so that is our desired dose our have dose what we have on hand is point two five milligrams our milligrams cancels out and we're going to multiply by our quantity which is one tablet equals x that's what we're solving for so when you divide this out you get three times one tablet just bringing that down equals x and three times one is three so the patient needs three tablets to equal that dose that was ordered by the physician this problem says the physician is ordered 25 milligrams by mouth twice a day bid we're supplied with 50 milligram tablets so every tablet has 50 milligrams in it and we need to solve for how many tablets we're going to give per day so notice that this problem wants to know how many you're going to give the whole day not per dose so always pay attention to what they're asking so let's put our information into the formula the desired dose for the patient is 25 milligrams they're getting that twice a day so remember that and the age part is have what do you have on hand you have 50 milligrams times the quantity one tablet equals 50 milligrams so it's one tablet and we're solving for that so right there we can go ahead and solve our formula because milligrams cancels out they match up we don't need to convert so we're going to divide so 25 divided by 50 gives us 0.5 times one tablet and when you multiply that out you get 0.5 tablets so half a tablet but that is actually per dose because that's just one dose they want to know how many you're giving the whole day so it tells us that the patient is getting this bid twice a day so each dose so all you have to do is say 0.5 plus 0.5 and that gives you 1. so the patient for the whole day is going to get one tablet per day okay so that wraps up this video on how to solve tablet and capsule calculations using the desired over have method if you'd like to watch more videos in this series you can access the link in the youtube description below