Can someone please explan drip factor, gtts, etc

[borninoctober]

Hello,

My son is planning to take a RN course and I was looking through his math book. To save the life of me, I cannnot figure out how an IV works. I'm a visual person, so please explain in simple terms how it works. I know there's volume mL then drip factor, gtts, but I can't put it together in my mind. I would like to know just for my own curiosity.

Thanks and good luck to everyone.

Just a mom wanted to know! :nuke:

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

gtt = drop, factor which pharmacy tells you. It is determined by the tubing used.

You have a 1 liter bottle of Pepsi. You want it to infuse over 10 hours, i.e., get it all into the patient's vein. I know Pepsi isn't something we'd give IV but I figure you can visualize a 1 liter soda bottle.

The drop factor (gtt) is 10.

You spike it with the clamp on the tubing closed.

You hang it on the hook.

You then do the arithmetic. The formula is simply volume to be infused x drop factor / time.

So we now have 1000 x 10 = 10,000

10 hours = 600 minutes

10,000 / 600 = 16.666..... or 17 drops per minute.

Voila, rate figured.

you have 1000 mL (1000 mililiters make a liter) x 10 = 10000

so we have 1000

divide that by 60, the number of minutes in an hour.

[borninoctober]

Thanks so much. By the way, do nurses have to calculate these infusion rates by hand? Do you use a calculator each time to figure it out?

Nurses are not only gifted, but BRILLIANT! I am impressed.

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

depends on the nurse really. I do them in my head, then heck on paper when required. Most if not 99% of the time, we use pumps so it takes care of that for us.

[tommsbomb]

There is a book called demensional analysis for medications and it breaks it all down and it is WONDERFUL!! you should really invest in it. We had to teach ourselves from this book. It helps you set up the equations. All from the beginning. If you want you can email me and I will show you in detail how to set up the equations. Hope this helps

[borninoctober]

tommsbomb:

I will send you an email. Hope it goes through. Thanks!!

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

I HATED dimensional analysis. It complicates simple arithmetic.

[lemonaidangel]

Oh, no, dimensional analysis is wonderful! I was homeschooled, and my father taught me how to do DA to make word problems easier, back when I was in 5th grade. I hated it then, and I would cry, saying, "I'll never use this in my entire life!" But then I started college, and our nursing program requires that we take a dimensional analysis class. It was the easiest class I have ever taken in my entire life. It was like, everything my father taught me as a child clicked. And I breezed through that semester while everyone else was struggling to understand the concepts. It really does make everything easier once you know how to set up the formula, particularly if there are a lot of different conversions in the equation. I much prefer it over the "regular" way of doing math.