math help

Nursing Students Student Assist

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Someone please help me figure this problem out. I'm sure it will be something simple because I've looked at it too long.

Ordered: a medication drip of 6 mg/ml. The IV bag is 500 ml. The vial reads: 1 gram of the medication in 5 ml of solution. How many ml of the medication would you add to the 500 ml to make the 6 mg/ml drip?

Thank you!

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Oh, don't get me wrong, I totally get that it is possible that in some places without such facilities nurses do these things on the regular. I just said that after watching my preceptor try to squeeze excess fluids back into a brand new bag because the last nurse left the drip chamber on the tubing too full to see the drops fall. I was thinking, "Well, since that 500 ml bag was full, how are we going to get the extra in?" And, then, if we had to, there would have to be enough room for the reconstituted mL to be added so then the concentration really wouldn't be 6 mg/ml but something roughly equivalent and I know I'm over-thinking that but yeah! :x3: Also, at this current clinical has been the first to have regular medication errors that originated with the pharmacy so I have definitely learned not to count on the pharmacy for really anything except that likely I am going to have to be keen on double-checking everything I get from them (yes, it's been that bad).

You're not dating yourself -- my inexperience is just showing. :dummy1:

There is always a little room to place meds in a bag....or clear the drip chamber. Technically if you add 10mls of fluid to the bag you should remove 10mls from the bag first.
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