Dosage Calculations

[bonesrn]

ok guys need some help..my husband is going to CVT school and is taking a pharmacology class...here are the problems that are stumping us

Order is Levophed 22 cc/hr. drug factor is 0.53 mcg/min. How many mcg of Levophed is the pt getting per hr?

Order is Dopamine 4 (then the symbol is a 0 with a line thru it?). drug factor is 16.6 mcg/min. pt wt is 75 mg. the pump should be set at how many cc/hr?

If anyone can give us the formula we would be grateful! I am a med/surg nurse so I am not good with the ICU calculations and the pump would figure it out for me anyway :)....THanks!

[bonesrn]

Openheartmom....thanks for the info..will be good for future ref. When my husband went to pharm class yesterday his prof said that after looking over the problems she realized that there wasn't enough information given????? She never looked over the info before giving it to the students. Anyway, thanks to all who responded...I don't feel so stupid now!

[JessicRN]

Here is the formula we use in our ED

assuming the concentration of dopamine is 400mg/250cc then

mls/hr=volumexmcgxkgx60/mg on handx1000

therefore

mls/hr=250x4x75x60/400mgx1000

mls/hr=11.25

works every time

check out http://www.nurseweek.com to verify

good luck

[jimthorp]

When my husband went to pharm class yesterday his prof said that after looking over the problems she realized that there wasn't enough information given?????

That's what I said. The problem you quoted is "Order is Dopamine 4 (then the symbol is a 0 with a line thru it?). drug factor is 16.6 mcg/min. pt wt is 75 mg. the pump should be set at how many cc/hr?

"Dopamine 40" does not tell me anything but the drug to be administered...dopamine.

I'm also not sure what the drug factor "16.6 mcg/min" means. Is that the amount of drug to be infused per minute? To calculate cc/hr to deliver that you need to know the concentration of the solution, which is not given in the problem. Also, the order does not say to administer the drug according to bodyweight. If it is to be administered by body weight then the "16.6 mcg/min" may not be the correct quantity of drug per minute.

Am I not getting something?

[MMARN, BSN, RN]

I am so confused.

How could a pt weigh 75mg? Isn't weight done in kgs? Sorry if that sounds like a stupid question, but I barely get what the problem is saying.

[jimthorp]

I am so confused.

How could a pt weigh 75mg? Isn't weight done in kgs? Sorry if that sounds like a stupid question, but I barely get what the problem is saying.

I think it's a typo and she meant 75kg.

[earthgirl56]

if 0.53mcg is given in a min then in a hr 0.53mcg x 60min=31.8 mcg/hr =22cc per hr.

dopamine volume is missing to calculate cc/hr