The maximum amount of fluid an adult can safely be given intramuscularly is 3 mL for a child, the maximum is 1 mL. Intramuscularly ( IM): An intramuscular injection is one that is given in the muscle. (Sometimes you may see this abbreviated as s.c., SC, s.q., or SQ, but you should never abbreviate it this way, since these outdated abbreviations have often been misread.) The maximum amount of fluid an adult can safely be given subcutaneously is 1 mL. Subcutaneously ( subQ): A subcutaneous injection is one that is given in the fatty layer of tissue under the skin. Injection is usually given in one of three different ways: Parenteral medications are any medications given by injection. Parenteral Medications Routes of Administering Parenteral Medications Below are photographs of some of the containers often used for dosage of liquid oral drugs:

Oral medication for small children or infants will generally be in liquid form, since they cannot swallow pills. Many oral medications are given as liquids. Not all oral medication comes in pill form, however. Since the second and third options involve giving fewer pills, we should choose one of those, and since the third option does not require us to split any pills in half, that is the best option. All three of these choices would be safe. If we have a drug order to give the patient 150 mg of this drug, we have several choices: we can give the patient 3 50-mg tablets, or we can give the patient 1.5 100-mg tablets, or we can give the patient 1 50-mg tablet and 1 100-mg tablet. For example, let us suppose the scored tablets for the drug a patient has been prescribed come in 50 mg or 100 mg dosages. It's also generally better to give whole pills and avoid splitting pills if possible. If you have to give more than 3 pills to administer an ordered dosage, you should look for pills with a higher dosage, so that you can give fewer or them, and/or you should check the drug order for safety.Īs a general rule, if you have a choice of more than one pill dosage (for example, the pills you want may come in 2 versions: one kind may contain 50 mg and the other kind may contain 100 mg), you should always choose a combination that will result in the smallest number of pills for the patient to swallow. When giving a patient an oral medication in pill form, it is never safe to give more than 3 pills.

Med math practice with example orders