feel silly asking this question regarding etomidate dosaging

meandragonbrett · Mar 6, 2012

If it's 2mg/ml and your dose is 20mg you'd need 10mls of etomidate.

Being new to critical care has nothing to do with it. Are you a new nurse?

ckh23, BSN, RN · Mar 7, 2012

I would say do your own homework, but come one. You have to be yanking our chain. A 5 year old can do this math problem.

BelgianRN · Mar 7, 2012

Not sure had a new grad pull out her calculator to figure out how much she should draw when they wanted 1.5 grams of NaCl and a vial of 10 ml contains 3 grams. She found the answer apparently in her calculator

Then when I told her that it is pretty straight forward and asked if she had calculus in school. She began this entire explanation that she just likes to use her calculator but did the math by head already... In the mean time her calculator switched off. And she had to calculate it again with her calculator to find the answer since she forgot what the calculator said the first time.

Or this same new grad that had to draw up 20 mg of dipidolor and dilute it to 20 ml. And she wrote on her little label 0.5 mg/ml. So when confronted with this and asked to explain what she did. She stated she had indeed drawn 20 mg and diluted to 20 ml. But since she used another way to do the math different from what we told her it explained why the answer was different.

At this point I just gave up told her to do some logarithms and square roots for all I care but she couldn't count and went to draw my own dipidolor...

FYI I gave up precepting this new grad and handed her over to the most patient RN in the unit. As I found myself constantly in desire to smack her head against the wall (not just because of the calculus but she is a new grad nightmare...). And even our most patient RN has chewed her out on several occasions...

NEWER · Mar 7, 2012

Maybe I should have put more info into this. I am not a nurse yet. This was my first day in the ER (just observing). I over heard the md ordering this med during a code.

When I do go into my preceptorship, I pray I get someone whos willing to learn. I mean come on, instead of giving me some insite, you bash me.

Never the less, I came to the answer. The 40mg threw me off. Anyway, I will no longer be looking at this tread.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Mar 7, 2012

If the med is 2mg/ml and it is a 40mg/vial how many ml/cc's would you need to make 20mg if the med contains 2 mg of etomidate per/ml.

DosageHelp.com - Helping Nursing Students Learn Dosage Calculations

Now, you were misleading in your post. You are NOT new to critical care. Nurses are very good at fishing through information to smell the baloney.... and they smelled a rat in your post. ANY new nurse to critical care would be able to do this calculation. The responders reacted to what they felt was a surreptitious posting. Many come here for their homework to be completed for them.

We are more than happy to help students but we will not their work for them. We will help lead you to your answer so you may develop your deductive reasoning skills that are necessary for being a good nurse. I help many students here but I will not just give the answers and I want the students to be honest and forthcoming....important traits for any nurse.

Wouldn't your post have been better served being honest in the beginning?

I'm a new student and I was in the ED today and I heard a MD order 20mg of etomidate the vial says 40mg but 2mg/ml as well....how would you figure this out?

I wish you the best....:paw:

Double-Helix, BSN, RN · Mar 8, 2012

Esme, you rock. Also a bit odd that this was posted in Neuro ICU when the situation occurred in the ED.

OP, the label says 40 mg because that is the total volume that the vial contains. The concentration of the medication is 2mg/ml. The label might also have read 40mg, 20mL, 2mg/mL. I suggest you take a look at different vials of medication when you have free time to become more familiar with the wording on the vials. You can also do practice questions while you look at the medicine. So if you pick up a vial that has 30mg, 5mg/mL, ask yourself how much you would need to draw up to give 15 mg or 7.5 mg, etc.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Mar 10, 2012

I calls em how I sees em....... :lol2: . Every situation can be used to help some one communicate better.... now if I could just get my 15 year olds (yes two) to cooperate with the plan.....Thanks Ash...:hug: