Can someone help me figure this out?

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Motrin drops are available in a concentration of 100mg/2ml. The physician ordered Motrin ½ teaspoon for a temperature >101. The dosage is safe. How many ml should the nurse administer? How many mg of Motrin in this amount?

Please help I can not figure this out to save my life. Thank you. 

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First, in my opinion this is a ridiculous problem.  In the healthcare environment this should have been ordered as mg/kg, typically 10 mg/kg.  However, your instructor wrote this problem so that you are going to have to convert from one unit of measure to another.

You are given the volume of medication (½ teaspoon) to administer and the concentration (100mg / 2ml) available, and need to determine how many mg the patient will receive.  If you can convert mg to mcg, mL to L, etc., this is no different aside from the fact that this requires a two-step conversion.

What steps do you think you need to do to accomplish this?  And what missing conversion factor do you need?

If you post what you have already done it will better allow us to help you.

 

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On 6/16/2022 at 12:31 PM, nadenka said:

Motrin drops are available in a concentration of 100mg/2ml. The physician ordered Motrin ½ teaspoon for a temperature >101. The dosage is safe. How many ml should the nurse administer? How many mg of Motrin in this amount?

Just my take

1. How many ml's are there in 1 teaspoon? 5ml; in 1/2 teaspoon? 2.5mls

2. Always figure out what the ordered dose is. Then use the formula. 

the ordered dose is 2.5mls (1/2 tsp)

Formula = ordered dose/concentration (when reducing concentration to every 1ml)

100mg/2ml = 50mg/1ml

2.5ml/50mg = 0.05ml (in mls because were multiplying by 1ml )

If they want to know how many milligrams in 1/2 tsp (2.5mls)?

2.5ml x 50mg = 125mg

in .05mls? 

 .05ml x 50mg = 2.5mg

Anyone can feel free to correct me.

1
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14 minutes ago, faithjohn said:

Just my take

1. How many ml's are there in 1 teaspoon? 5ml; in 1/2 teaspoon? 2.5mls

2. Always figure out what the ordered dose is. Then use the formula. 

the ordered dose is 2.5mls (1/2 tsp)

Formula = ordered dose/concentration (when reducing concentration to every 1ml)

100mg/2ml = 50mg/1ml

2.5ml/50mg = 0.05ml (in mls because were multiplying by 1ml )

If they want to know how many milligrams in 1/2 tsp (2.5mls)?

2.5ml x 50mg = 125mg

in .05mls? 

 .05ml x 50mg = 2.5mg

 

Anyone can feel free to correct me.

If you are saying the answer is 2.5 mg, please try again.  If you are saying the answer is something other than 2.5 mg, please show your work so that your answer is the last line of your work and it is easily and clearly identifiable.

And working the problem for the OP is not helpful at all as we still don't know whether he or she actually knows how to solve the problem.

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On 6/16/2022 at 2:51 PM, chare said:

First, in my opinion this is a ridiculous problem.  In the healthcare environment this should have been ordered as mg/kg, typically 10 mg/kg.  However, your instructor wrote this problem so that you are going to have to convert from one unit of measure to another.

You are given the volume of medication (½ teaspoon) to administer and the concentration (100mg / 2ml) available, and need to determine how many mg the patient will receive.  If you can convert mg to mcg, mL to L, etc., this is no different aside from the fact that this requires a two-step conversion.

What steps do you think you need to do to accomplish this?  And what missing conversion factor do you need?

If you post what you have already done it will better allow us to help you.

 

I stupidly did 2.5/100X2ml= 0.05 then couldn't figure out at all the last question. 

On 6/16/2022 at 3:27 PM, faithjohn said:

Just my take

1. How many ml's are there in 1 teaspoon? 5ml; in 1/2 teaspoon? 2.5mls

2. Always figure out what the ordered dose is. Then use the formula. 

the ordered dose is 2.5mls (1/2 tsp)

Formula = ordered dose/concentration (when reducing concentration to every 1ml)

100mg/2ml = 50mg/1ml

2.5ml/50mg = 0.05ml (in mls because were multiplying by 1ml )

If they want to know how many milligrams in 1/2 tsp (2.5mls)?

2.5ml x 50mg = 125mg

in .05mls? 

 .05ml x 50mg = 2.5mg

Anyone can feel free to correct me.

Thank you let me check on this 

 

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11 minutes ago, nadenka said:

I stupidly did 2.5/100X2ml= 0.05 then couldn't figure out at all the last question. 

So what do you think you should do differently?

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1 minute ago, chare said:

So what do you think you should do differently?

I have no idea which is why im here 

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While there are formulae available that will work with most problems, when I work with students and new nurses I encourage them to use dimensional analysis.  You might find the references in the first two posts in this thread helpful.

When I work this type problem I place what I start with on the left side of my worksheet and what I am solving for on the right: 0.6 tsp > x mg.

Extracting the necessary information (0.5 tsp and 100 mg/2 mL) what two conversions do you think you will need to make to solve this problem?

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51 minutes ago, chare said:

If you are saying the answer is 2.5 mg, please try again.  If you are saying the answer is something other than 2.5 mg, please show your work so that your answer is the last line of your work and it is easily and clearly identifiable.

And working the problem for the OP is not helpful at all as we still don't know whether he or she actually knows how to solve the problem.

There are 2 answers there in clear detail. Feel free to work out the problem yourself. 

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3 minutes ago, faithjohn said:

There are 2 answers there in clear detail. Feel free to work out the problem yourself. 

I did.  However, what you posted is confusing, especially for someone already having difficulty.

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7 minutes ago, chare said:

I did.  However, what you posted is confusing, especially for someone already having difficulty.

Look maam, I am helping a student out. Don't answer anymore of my posts. It wasn't for you to get hard up, it was for the student. Good day. 

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21 minutes ago, faithjohn said:

Look maam, I am helping a student out. Don't answer anymore of my posts. It wasn't for you to get hard up, it was for the student. Good day. 

First, I'm not a ma'am.  Second, when you post, you don't get to choose who can and can't respond to your post.  And third, working the problem for them, and including extraneous information that has no bearing on what is being solved is not helping the OP, especially as he or she still doesn't know how to solve the problem.

 

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