Of all the health professions, pharmacy is probably the most calculation intensive. Many pharmacy students are unprepared for this reality and are overwhelmed by their calculations courses. Written by a clinician in easy-to-understand language and emphasizing practical calculations that pharmacists do every day, Understanding Pharmacy Calculations illuminates for students the relevance of calculations to pharmacy practice.

A structured, five-lesson design provides numerous practical examples and problems, enabling instructors to extract material that complements their classroom presentations and students to use the book at their own pace in preparing for the national pharmacy licensure examination. Unusual for a math book, it is written in a light-hearted, sometimes humorous tone that makes this onerous topic more pleasant to confront.

Key Features:
5 lessons designed to develop proficiency in working out calculations commonly encountered in pharmacy practice:
--Lesson 1—Things You’ll Use Every Day
--Lesson 2—Understanding Expressions of Drug Amounts (units, parts, concentration, percentage strength, ratio strength, solubility ratios, proof strength, specific gravity, molarity, milliosmoles, milliequivalents, normality, percent ionization)
--Lesson 3—Calculations Used When Compounding Medications (proportional calculations, determination of osmolarity, isotonicity calculations, dilution and concentration of previously prepared medications, aliquots, buffer system calculations)
--Lesson 4—Calculations Used to Determine Patient-Specific Doses (“The Right Dose”) (general dosing information, body weight considerations, body surface area, infusion rate dosing calculations, easing patients into and out of doses, pharmacokinetic dosing calculations)
--Lesson 5—Parenteral Nutrition Calculations (components of a TPN, two ways to mix parenteral nutrition products, TPN calculations, mixing TPNs using the pump method, mixing TPNs using the preset volume method [traditional], TPN worksheets)
--Practice problems, with the answers provided, at the end of each lesson
--Knowledge is tested with 100 practice problems, with the answers provided, at the end of the book
--Easy-to-understand examples and explanations
--Written by a clinician, provides actual clinical examples

Table of Contents:
Preface
1. Things You’ll Use Every Day
2. Understanding Expressions of Drug Amounts
3. Calculations Used When Compounding Medications
4. Calculations to Determine Patient-Specific Doses (“The Right Dose”)
5. Parenteral Nutrition Calculations
Practice Practice Practice