Dosage Help

I am having trouble with the following question. I have looked at it so long, I am just getting more confused. Any help is appreciated.

0.9% Normal Saline with inamrinone 0.1 grams/100mL is prescribed for a patient with heart failure. The medication is to be delivered at a rate of 400mcg/minute. The nurse should program the infusion pump to deliver how many mL/hour?

This is how I worked it, but I do not feel this is correct.

400mcg/100,000mcg * 100mL = 0.4mL

0.4mL/1 minute * 60 = 24 mL/H

2 Answers

Specializes in Pharmacy, Mathematics, Physics, and Educator.

Just an FYI, this is how I would do the problem. You are starting off with 400 mcg/min and have to change that to mL/h. Now you can see that you have to change mcg to mL and min to hours. You use the ratio of 0.1 g/100 mL and a couple of conversion factors to get the job done. If you set it up like this, you can double check your work before doing any calculations.

400 mcg/min (60 min/h) (100 mL/0.1 g) (1 g/1,000,000 mcg) =24 mL/h

Brad Wojcik, PharmD

https://allnurses.com/master-your-drug-calculations-before-t671081/

24 mL/hour is correct.

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