Dosage Calc Question

Nursing Students Student Assist

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I'm having trouble with this homework problem. Any help would be great!

The doctor orders 500mL at 20 gtt per min. The drop factor is 15. How long will the IV infuse? If the infusion started at 6am, when will it finish?

Please show me how you get the answer instead of just the answer. Thank you!

Specializes in CICU, Telemetry.

he doctor orders 500mL at 20 gtt per min. The drop factor is 15. How long will the IV infuse? If the infusion started at 6am, when will it finish?

You have 2 numbers in gtt and 1 number in mL. Let's get them all in the same units. 1mL is 15gtt. 20/15=1.33mL per minute. 1.33x60=80mL per hour. 500/80=6.25 hours. If started at 6am, it will finish at 12:15PM. (0.25h is 1/4h is 15 minutes)

so I would do 1mL/15gtt X 20gtt/minutes?

Specializes in Critical care.
he doctor orders 500mL at 20 gtt per min. The drop factor is 15. How long will the IV infuse? If the infusion started at 6am, when will it finish?

You have 2 numbers in gtt and 1 number in mL. Let's get them all in the same units. 1mL is 15gtt. 20/15=1.33mL per minute. 1.33x60=80mL per hour. 500/80=6.25 hours. If started at 6am, it will finish at 12:15PM. (0.25h is 1/4h is 15 minutes)

Totally giving the answer away does not help any student learn in the long run. There was a reason previous posters, including myself, did not give the answer.

so I would do 1mL/15gtt X 20gtt/minutes?

That will give you mL/minute. What do you think you need to do next.

Specializes in BSN, RN-BC, NREMT, EMT-P, TCRN.

500ml volume. 15gtt/ml factor. 20gtt/minute which equals 1.4ml/minute. This equates to approximately 357 minutes, or 6 hours. Infusion done at 12.

Specializes in ICU (CCRN) / Psych (NP) / Preceptor / Biochemistry.

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What was missing was that the drop factor units are gtt/mL. That's what you use to setup the multidimensional analysis. Next you just convert the minutes to 6.25 hours.

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