info on titrating meds

[athena55, BSN, RN]

Good Afternoon All!

I seem to be having a hard time making some information clear to someone who is new to critical care, specifically, how to calculate and titrate meds such as dopa, dobutamine, lidocaine, epi....

I guess I have been doing it for so long that I am just confusing this poor person. Any hints or books I can lead him to? Any formula's that you can offer?

Thank you. Have a safe Forth of July!

Respectfully,

athena

[AnnieOaklyRN, BSN, RN, EMT-P]

Hi Athen... Here are some shortcuts I use:

Dopamine: If it is 1600 mcg/ mL here is my formular:

kg weight x dose DIVIDED by 26.6 will give you your drip

rate via pump or microdrip tubing.

If it is 800 mcg/ml:

kg weight x dose divided by 13.3 will give you your drip

rate via pump or micro drip tubing.

Lidocaine: If it is 4mg/ ml (1 gram in 250 mL)

4 mg/ min= 60 ml on pump

2 mg/min= 30 ml on pump

1 mg/min = 15 ml on pump

you see the pattern? This also will work for micro drip tubing

Epi DRIP: usually 1 mg in 250 mL so the formular for lidocaine can be

used. It will just be mcg/min instead of mg/min.

Hope this helps. Just some shortcuts I use as a paramedic.

Swtooth EMT-P, RN

[Christie RN2006]

Does your hospital have a policy on titrating drips? The one I work at tells you the recommended starting dose, how often you can titrate and how much you can titrate. I always start small and if the patient is tolerating the titrating, I start titrating faster. It took me a while to figure it out too, I think the best way for me to learn was by reading the policies and doing it.