Drug calculations with multiple drugs?

[MelMcC]

I am new to the world of drug calculations. We have only practiced them using one drug, but today I encountered my first question involving multiple drugs.

A patient has orders for IV 1000mL D5NS over 12 hours. The patient also has orders for

Imipenem/cilastatin 500 mg every 6 hours IVPB. Both rates for the drugs would be 83mL/hr, but I would have to combine the two and she would get 166mL/hr, correct? The IV pump would be set at 166mL/hr? Or am I just overthinking it?

[chare]

What specifically is the problem asking you to determine?

[Rose_Queen, BSN, MSN, RN]

You can only run 1 drug per channel on an IV pump. So, no, you can't set the IV pump at 166mL/hr. You would either need a pump that can independently infuse two bags of fluid at the same time or two separate pumps. Each pump/channel would run the drug assigned to it at the appropriate rate.

Can you show us exactly how you are setting up your calculations that you are thinking to run the pump at 166ml/hr?

[rob4546, ADN, BSN, MSN]

I think the problem is the fact that you have not yet in your program learned to set or use IV pumps. No you would not combine them they would be programmed separately on different channels. If the result would be 83 mL/hr then they each would be set at 83 mL/hr. As far as calculating the unknown to your problem there was not enough information provided. If you want to post the full question then we could help you more.

[Kristenlaurenw]

Another issue is that the fluids tell you "over 12 hours" so you can calculate a rate for that but the same isn't true for the medication. It tells how often to hang the medication but not how long to run it.