Dosage Question

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I must still have winter vacation brain because I cant seem to work out this simple question. Please help.

Question

Order: Toradol 15mg IV over 1minute

Available: Toradol 30mg/ml in 2ml

How many ml's will the nurse administer?

I came up with 0.5ml but the answer is 1ml.

I thought the 2ml was a distractor because it states the dose is 30mg/ml and it was just stating that you had a total of 2ml on hand.

Sorry I know this is a simple question but I'm confused.

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There must be a piece missing somewhere --- the information as presented does represent that you have on hand a 2mL vial at 30 mg/mL .. thus a total dose of 60 mg. So it would be 0.5 mL to give a 15 mg dose.

Was the dose diluted so that on hand was a total of 2 mL? If so then it would make sense that you would give 1 mL because of the dilution.

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That's what we were thinking Bravo. The problem I typed is exactly what it says on the paper.This was just a practice sheet before we take our dosage exam tonight. There's no explanation just the answer given. I'll have to ask if there is a typo. It was driving me nuts because I could do the advanced calculations but the easy one tripped me up.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
I must still have winter vacation brain because I cant seem to work out this simple question. Please help.

Question

Order: Toradol 15mg IV over 1minute

Available: Toradol 30mg/ml in 2ml

How many ml's will the nurse administer?

I came up with 0.5ml but the answer is 1ml.

I thought the 2ml was a distractor because it states the dose is 30mg/ml and it was just stating that you had a total of 2ml on hand.

Sorry I know this is a simple question but I'm confused.

Look at the question carefully.......I think it is poorly written. The

Available: Toradol 30mg/ml in 2ml

is poorly stated. I saw it as diluted to total 2ml total...which would make 15 mg/ml. If I saw this as an order I would call the MD to clarify for it will lead to mistakes. If you look at it directly...Available: Toradol 30mg/ml in 2ml...it would actually be a total of 3mls ....1ml of Toradol added to 2mls.

It should say Available: Toradol 30mg/ml diluted in 1ml 0.9ns to total 2ml.

Order: Toradol 15mg IV over 1minute

Available:Toradol 30mg/ml diluted in 1ml 0.9ns to total 2ml.

How many ml's will the nurse administer?

I would ask you instructors to clarify.

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i got 1ml by cross multiplying.

15mg/x = 30mg/2ml

15mgx2ml=30

30mg/30 = 1ml

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.

"IN" is the key word. It is a poorly written question, though. It could have been diluted with god knows what.

Personally I'd put the calculator down, toss the "dose" in the question into the sharps container, and go get an undiluted vial. Then I'd go write it up..that's a safety issue!

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

I knew what it mean as well..... but when it says you have 30mg/1ml in 2 ml it makes me thing you put the 30mg/ml in 2 ml/s of diluent ...leaving a huge margin for errors.

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.
I knew what it mean as well..... but when it says you have 30mg/1ml in 2 ml it makes me thing you put the 30mg/ml in 2 ml/s of diluent ...leaving a huge margin for errors.

I was joking, since the question had already been answered. At last year's skills checkoff we had a new non-clinically experienced educator that had written a bunch of math questions like that. Yes, they make us prove we can still do the math once a year where I work even though we do them 50 million times a day. After doing the math I spent the rest of the allotted test time pointing out all the patient safety issues I saw. I'm such a nerd.

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Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.

I now you were...LOVED your version of a question on the other thread....LOL I'm nerd too. :)

I feel bad for the student when they try to figure these out....sigh

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Specializes in Ortho, Case Management, blabla.
I now you were...LOVED your version of a question on the other thread....LOL I'm nerd too. :)

I feel bad for the student when they try to figure these out....sigh

I remember on one of the insulin dosage calculation questions; she had photocopied one of the vials while preparing the test months before and the vial pictured on the test was like 3 months expired. I did the math but I couldn't resist pointing it out

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I did desired/have X the vehicle. I thought it was written just fine. Now that I read the other responses I can see how it can be misunderstood.

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People get confused on these all the time. The fact of the matter is that if any label says "30mg/ml," then one ml has 30mg in it, no matter how many cc there are in the vial. I can't tell you how often students forget that and think for some reason they need to account for every cc in the vial, when it's only necessary to know mg/cc to do your calculation.

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