Pounds used as kilograms
NCLEX-RN glossary · Pharmacological And Parenteral Therapies
Definition
A dangerous calculation error in which a client's weight is not converted from pounds to kilograms (1 kg = 2.2 lb). This unit error results in a medication dosage about 2.2 times the safe dose.
Pounds used as kilograms in plain English
This is essential for medication safety; failure to perform this conversion leads to catastrophic overdoses in weight-based infusions, particularly in pediatric and high-alert environments. A common mistake is calculating a dosage correctly based on the raw number provided while failing to verify if the units (lb vs. kg) match the required mg/kg metric.
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