Can you solve this drug calculation?

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Just took my final for Pharmacology. There was a question on there that stumped everyone I talked to.

Order: 0.1mcg in 100mL

Stock: 25mg/hr

We were told that we would not have any drug calculations on test that were not realistic. The answer that I got for this (along with other students I spoke to) was 2,500,000 mL/hr.

Obviously it doesn't matter NOW, because the final is over but it is just eating at me!!!

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It may just be me, but the wording of that problem doesn't make much sense.....the ones I usually see are an order of mg (mL)/hr and on hand of mg (mcg) per mL......

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It was written just like this on the test:

0.1 mcg in 100 mL; give 25mg/hr

(and we were to solve for mL/hr)

Our class has a private FB page so I was planning to let them all know. Apparently half the class was hung up on this 1 single question.

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I did write that wrong in the first post. Sorry! I'm scatter brained right now cuz I'm very anxious to see what my grade is and if I passed the class.

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Ok, I've tried a few times and gotten really high numbers (like amounts that shouldn't be given over an hour!)......I'm usually pretty good with the math problems, but I may have to defer to those who are better than me! ;)

Wish I could help more!

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

The answer for the problem as presented here is 2,500,000mL/hr. However, unless you were trying to have your patient explode you'd never administer that much fluid in a week let alone in an hour. There is probably a missing decimal point somewhere in the problem and a missing c between the m and g.

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That is what we were all saying! They told us there would not be ANY problems that were unrealistic. I saved this one problem for last and spent 30 minutes working on it (converting both ways) and reworking it.

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Hopefully the instructor will realize that it was THEIR mistake when they are grading the tests and everyone has 2million mL as the answer!

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Hmm... I wonder if the answer they were looking for was "it comes to 2,500,000 mL/hr, which is obviously wrong, so my next step is to tell the MD to fix the order."

I know they said that all questions would be realistic, but finding errors in med orders and getting them fixed IS a realistic part of med administration. It's more realistic, in a way, than a set of problems where everything is correct and unambiguous...

Put another way, maybe your prof meant "hospital realistic" problems, not "nursing school realistic".

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Specializes in Oncology.
Hmm... I wonder if the answer they were looking for was "it comes to 2,500,000 mL/hr, which is obviously wrong, so my next step is to tell the MD to fix the order."

I know they said that all questions would be realistic, but finding errors in med orders and getting them fixed IS a realistic part of med administration. It's more realistic, in a way, than a set of problems where everything is correct and unambiguous...

Put another way, maybe your prof meant "hospital realistic" problems, not "nursing school realistic".

I think that would be a bit unfair unless specific scenarios regarding this had been discussed.

It sounds like a typo. I'm surprised you don't have someone in your class who would raise their hand during the exam and ask - we always did.

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Doing the D/H x V

0.1 mcg/25mg x 100 mL got me 0.4 is that wrong??? not even sure I

set it up right

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Specializes in community small-town med/icu unit.
Doing the D/H x V

0.1 mcg/25mg x 100 mL got me 0.4 is that wrong??? not even sure I

set it up right

Yup that's wrong.

You forgot to convert your mcg to mg (or vice versa... depending on how many decimal points you like to play with)

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