Reconstituted math problems. HELP

Nursing Students Student Assist

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Hello, I'am in nursing school and i stink at reconstituted math problems.

Can someone please tell me if I'am on the right track with this prob. or direct me to a book that can further assist me in theses types of problems. The instructor gave us this problem with made up numbers and told us to work out. They are not the original numbers from exam.

Keflon 500mg in 500ml, D5w over 2hrs. Available 0.5grams of powder vial reconstituted with 10ml sterile water in 50mg/ml

Use a 15gtt/ml set.

1st: I converted 0.5grams to mg= 500mg

2nd: 500mg/10ml= 50mg/ml

Drug calculation:H V D x

500:ml 500mg: x

1ml

Flow Rate: 500mlx15gtt/ml=

120mins 62.5gtt/min

All of the numbers are false. This is how I approached the problem, and took the exam today and approached it the same way. Please help or guide me in the right direction.

Let me point you to a website that is sooo helpful for nursing math, dosagehelp.com. It will walk you through each type of problem and there are tons of practice questions (with an explanation of what to do if you get the answer wrong). Best of luck to you!

Specializes in Hospitalist Medicine.

You made an error in your Drug Calculation step. The ratios aren't correct (think mL needed).

Specializes in Neuro Intensive Care.

Hint: how many grams of powder that is in the vial and the amount of liquid that you dissolve it into has nothing to do with your calculations.

Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

Know your conversions......

DosageHelp.com - Helping Nursing Students Learn Dosage Calculations

http://www.davesems.com/files/drug_dose_calculations.pdf

Hint: how many grams of powder that is in the vial and the amount of liquid that you dissolve it into has nothing to do with your calculations.

Normally that is true, but this is a made up problem which is why it doesn't make a lot of sense. In our program reconstitution problems are always supplied with a label like this.

http://www.cwladis.com/math104/tazicef.jpg

The label tells you the concentration, it isn't something you can calculate, because the powder adds to the volume. 10ml of dilute may yield 10.2ml medication when reconstituted.

Hello, I'am in nursing school and i stink at reconstituted math problems.

Can someone please tell me if I'am on the right track with this prob. or direct me to a book that can further assist me in theses types of problems. The instructor gave us this problem with made up numbers and told us to work out. They are not the original numbers from exam.

Keflon 500mg in 500ml, D5w over 2hrs. Available 0.5grams of powder vial reconstituted with 10ml sterile water in 50mg/ml

Use a 15gtt/ml set.

1st: I converted 0.5grams to mg= 500mg

2nd: 500mg/10ml= 50mg/ml

Drug calculation:H V D x

500:ml 500mg: x

1ml

Flow Rate: 500mlx15gtt/ml=

120mins 62.5gtt/min

All of the numbers are false. This is how I approached the problem, and took the exam today and approached it the same way. Please help or guide me in the right direction.

The problem doesn't tell you what she wants you to solve for either. But anyways,

Keflon 500mg in 500ml, D5w over 2hrs. Available 0.5grams of powder vial reconstituted with 10ml sterile water in 50mg/ml

Use a 15gtt/ml set.

Order:500mg/500ml over 2hrs

on hand: 50mg/ml

Tubing:15gtt/ml

(500/50)*1=10ml

You inject 10ml in 500ml D5w, so if you want to be technical about it you have 510ml to infuse over 2 hours. If you use the 500ml you get 62.5 gtt/min, but this has to be rounded up to 63 gtt/min, no so such thing as a half drop. Using (510ml*15)/120=63.75 rounded is 64 gtt/min or 255 ml/hr. Like I said the problem doesn't tell you what she is looking for.

Thank You all for the information...I truly appreciate all of the help.

Hello, I'am in nursing school and i stink at reconstituted math problems.

Can someone please tell me if I'am on the right track with this prob. or direct me to a book that can further assist me in theses types of problems. The instructor gave us this problem with made up numbers and told us to work out. They are not the original numbers from exam.

Keflon 500mg in 500ml, D5w over 2hrs.

Stop right there.

All this question is asking you is to give 500cc over two hours and figure out how fast to run the gtts. All the rest is distraction (and that seems to be working).

Why? Because 0.5gm = 500mg, and no matter what you reconstitute it in or how much, the fact is that you have to give the 500mg in 500 cc over two hours. That's it. That's 250cc/hour, right? Now does that make sense?

Sometimes people are in such a hurry to use every bit of information in a question that they fail to see the real question being asked. Test constructors know this, and put in distractors (wrong answers) that these people will get when they do the wrong calculations using the extraneous unneeded information.

Now try it and see what you get.

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