PITOCIN HELP!!!

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I'm struggling to understand what I'm doing wrong for this pitocin calc...

This is the question: The physician ordered the pitocin infusion to run at 16mu/min. The pharmacy sent up 10 units of pitocin in 500mL of D5LR. You would set your pump at _____________ mL/hour.

I have never worked backwards like this (normally the questions we get in class ask for a the initial rate, titration rate and final rate) and I'm not sure if I'm even doing the right thing but here it goes..:mad:

10ux1000= 10mu.

10,000mu/500= 20mu/ml

16mu/1min = 20mu/1ml = 1hr/60min...and then I get some weird answer which is definitely wrong b/c the answer given is 48ml/hr.:notworthy:

Does anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong?? I just don't see it! :bored:

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Specializes in Cardiology and ER Nursing.

Yeah you got the concentration correct, 20mu per mL. I'm not exactly sure what you are doing next.

You should take your ordered dosage, 16mu per minute divided that by the concentration per ml which is 20mu that gives you how many ml of solution you'll infuse per minute (0.8mL) then multiply that by 60 to give you your hourly rate of 48mL.

16/20*60

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I use the formula method, so I can't comment on your analysis of the problem, but this is how I solved it...

The order is for 16mu/min. You are given 10 units in 500mL.

First thing I did was convert units to mu: 10,000mu/500mL

Then, I figured how many mu/mL: 10000 / 500 = 20mu/mL

Then, I figured how many mu would infuse/hour: 16mu * 60min = 960mu/hour

So, to figure out how many mL/hour I divided the mu/hour by the mu/mL: 960mu / 20mL = 48mL/hour

Hopefully you find this helpful! :)

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Specializes in Pedi.
I'm struggling to understand what I'm doing wrong for this pitocin calc...

This is the question: The physician ordered the pitocin infusion to run at 16mu/min. The pharmacy sent up 10 units of pitocin in 500mL of D5LR. You would set your pump at _____________ mL/hour.

I have never worked backwards like this (normally the questions we get in class ask for a the initial rate, titration rate and final rate) and I'm not sure if I'm even doing the right thing but here it goes..:mad:

10ux1000= 10mu.

10,000mu/500= 20mu/ml

16mu/1min = 20mu/1ml = 1hr/60min...and then I get some weird answer which is definitely wrong b/c the answer given is 48ml/hr.:notworthy:

Does anyone have any idea what I'm doing wrong?? I just don't see it! :bored:

Let's look at what you did here:

16mu/1min = 20mu/1ml = 1hr/60min

None of these things are true. 16 mu/min does not EQUAL 20 mu/1mL which does not equal 1 hr/60 min. You need to multiply here.

16 mu/min MULTIPLIED BY 1 mL/20 mu MULTIPLIED BY 60 min/1 hr will give you 48 mL/hr.

You need to pay attention to your units. The way you had the problem set up, your answer would be milliunits SQUARED x 1 hr over minutes squared x 1 mL.

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