I have a stupid question. IV drip rates.

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I know I learned this in school, but when I was on the floor it confused me for some reason. I had a bag of Zosen that was 100ml and it said to infuse over 30 minutes so I set the pump to admin 100ml (RTBI) at a rate of 100. I understand the amt to be infused, but why was it infused at 100? I guess it threw me off and I'm not getting it something. Help please.

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I know I learned this in school, but when I was on the floor it confused me for some reason. I had a bag of Zosen that was 100ml and it said to infuse over 30 minutes so I set the pump to admin 100ml (RTBI) at a rate of 100. I understand the amt to be infused, but I was told to set the rate at 100? Why 100? What am I missing here? Help please.

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If you are administering 100ml in 30min the pump should be set to 200ml per hr. That's 100ml in 30min. I had the same problem at clinicals once and will never forget it because I had the biggest brain-fart infront of the pt's family! Embarassing, but I will never forget!

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If you are administering 100ml in 30min the pump should be set to 200ml per hr. That's 100ml in 30min. I had the same problem at clinicals once and will never forget it because I had the biggest brain-fart infront of the pt's family! Embarassing, but I will never forget!

The thing is she told me to set the rate at 100, not 200. I don't get it.

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:smackingf

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Sounds like SHE was wrong.

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Was this your instructor or an RN that you were following? It certainly doesn't make sense to set the rate at 100. I would've been just as confused as you especially if it was ordered to infuse over 30 min.

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Was this your instructor or an RN that you were following? It certainly doesn't make sense to set the rate at 100. I would've been just as confused as you especially if it was ordered to infuse over 30 min.

It was the RN. :uhoh3:

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Specializes in cardiac/critical care/ informatics.

you set it at a rate of 100 and total amt of 100ml. that will run in a hour. If you wanted the zosyn to run in an half hour than it should have been run in at 200. However in my facility I believe zosyn is a 50ml bag so then you would set the rate at 100cc hour and total infused would be 50.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I'm going to merge these two threads...

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Was it a pump that you can set the time to be infused over? We have some like this where I am doing clnicals. You set the amt to be infused, then you set the time to be infused. Threw me the first couple times I needed to set em.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

200ml is the correct answer

You have to remember that most IV pumps are programmed to run an IVPB over an hour. Also, when programming the pump for an infusion time that is less than one hr, you only have to determine the infusion rate. Leave the volume to be infused alone when actually setting the pump because it doesn't change(only when figuring out the infusion rate, as you'll see below).

So, the order calls for a 100ml bag to be run over 30mins. You need to figure out what the volume of the bag would be if the ordered infusion time was 60mins(because the IV pump is programmed to run meds over an hour). And what you do to one factor, you have to do the same to the other. So if 30mins x 2=60mins, then multiply the volume of the IVPB bag x2: 100ml x2= 200ml. Thus, 200ml is what your infusion rate will be and 100ml is the volume to be infused.

Sounds confusing, but honestly the math is pretty simple once you get the hang of it.

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