Please help with IV med calcs!

Nursing Students Student Assist

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Specializes in Emergency, Internal Medicine, Sports Med.

I'm a bit frazzled.

Can someone double check this for me please? Me and my friend (well, co-nursing student) have different answers.

Order:

Metoclopramide 10mg IV q4-6H PRN (adding medication to a 50 ml NS minibag).

The total volume works out to be 52 mls... now this is the part I don't get:

You want this to run over 15 mins. Your drip rate is micro (60gtt/ml). What is the drip rate?

What is the drip rate using a tube factor of 10?

What about Alaris pump tubing (Tube factor =20) and run by gravity

Please help, thanks

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
Order:

Metoclopramide 10mg IV q4-6H PRN (adding medication to a 50 ml NS minibag).

The total volume works out to be 52 mls... now this is the part I don't get:

You want this to run over 15 mins. Your drip rate is micro (60gtt/ml). What is the drip rate?

What is the drip rate using a tube factor of 10?

What about Alaris pump tubing (Tube factor =20) and run by gravity

What is the drip rate with microdrip tubing (60 gtts/mL)?

You want the answer in gtts/minute.

52 mL/15 minutes
(dose desired)
x 60 gtts/1 mL
(drop factor of IV tubing)
=
208 gtts/minute
(drip rate to titrate the tubing at)

What is the drip rate using tubing with a drip factor of 10?

52 mL/15 minutes
(dose desired)
x 10 gtts/1 mL
(drop factor of IV tubing)
= 34.66,
rounded off to
35 gtts/minute
(drip rate to titrate the tubing at)
NOTE
: drops must be whole numbers. There is no such thing as a fractional part of a drop in the real world.

What is the drip rate using the Alaris pump (or drop counter?) which utilizes tubing with a drip factor of 20 and run by gravity?

52 mL/15 minutes
(dose desired)
x 20 gtts/1 mL
(drop factor of IV tubing)
= 69.33,
rounded off to
69 gtts/minute
(drip rate to titrate the tubing at)

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