iv infusion

Nurses General Nursing

Published

infusing 100mg of ampicillin in 100ml over 45 minutes - what's the infusion rate...?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ER, ICU, Medsurg.

sounds like homework to me.....what have you figured out so far?

Up Vote Up Vote ×

not great at the math and I know the antibiotic will infuse quickly - think its 2.2 ???

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Tele RN on the West Coast.

Before you go to this website and plug in the numbers, think about this:

Anytime you are figuring a ml/hour rate which is 1 hour or less, ask yourself:

How many times does this number of minutes go into 60 (since there are 60 minutes in 1 hour)

Your example is: 60/45=1.3333333 x 100ml= your answer in ml/hour

Another example so you can get the idea is:

100 ml in 30 minutes:

Think to yourself: How many times does 30 go into 60?

The answer is 2 times. So you multiply the ml (here is it 100ml) x2=200ml/h

Hope that helps because you will be doing this a whole lot in clinical and real life so be sure to understand the concept.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Tele RN on the West Coast.

Here is also a website to check the answer you get against. As I said before, don't just go to the website before figuring out how to do the problem since you won't have this website at clinical.

NurseWeek: Calculators

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

Seriously, what if you get bad advice on an internet forum? This is at least your 2nd homework question today.

What if you get a wicked poster who doesn't like students asking others to do their homework and would like to see them fail?

What if the answers you receive are totally off-base? Are you ready to show your instructor how you arrived at "your" answers?

What will you do when you must calculate dosages on the NCLEX exam and you have no access to allnurses.com?

What will you do if you somehow pass NCLEX without a dose calcuation question, but must pass a dose calcuation test during your orientation or else be let go?

I truly am not trying to be snarky. You MUST LEARN HOW TO RESEARCH FOR YOURSELF.

You MUST LEARN HOW TO CALCULATE DOSAGES FOR YOURSELF.

You MUST LEARN TO DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK.

I guess as long as folks are willing to do your work for you, as they have done here, you will continue to ask your questions. But I hope that you will give some thought to the future...YOUR future and how you will truly be able to function as a nurse.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Psych/CD/Medical/Emp Hlth/Staff ED.

You can also think of it in terms of ratios with an unkown (x) to solve for: You need to infuse 100ml in 45 minutes (100ml per 45 minutes or 100/45) and you want to know how many mls that is for 60 minutes (x ml.'s per hour or x/60). You can solve for x by cross multiplying and dividing making sure you keep your ml's on the top and minutes on the bottom;

100..... x

----- = ------

45...... 60

(ignore the periods)

Cross multiply (100x60=600) and divide (600/45=133.33)

x=133.33 mls/60 minutes (or 2.2 ml/minute, just remember your IV pump is probably going to want the rate in ml's per hour)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surg.

These are things that you will have to figure out on your own once you finish with school. I recommend if you are not good with math to get some tutoring, the math in nursing is critical that it is done correctly.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.
These are things that you will have to figure out on your own once you finish with school. I recommend if you are not good with math to get some tutoring, the math in nursing is critical that it is done correctly.

We're spitting in the wind, Louis. Apparently some folks are all too willing to give students the answers. These are students that I hope I never have to precept.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in adult ICU.

IMO if you can't do this type of basic math you have no business being in nursing school at all. I remember in my basic nursing program (a while ago now) we had a hard and fast med math test that you had to take the first semester to pass. If you didn't pass the test, you failed the course and had to retake. Fail that course again, you get kicked out of the program.

It was a lot of math problems like this......

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Psych/CD/Medical/Emp Hlth/Staff ED.
You MUST LEARN HOW TO CALCULATE DOSAGES FOR YOURSELF.

You MUST LEARN TO DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK.

That's what she's trying to do. The above statements would make a good sign for the door of a tutoring center, it should would keep the crowds down. And they say nurses eat their young.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.

"That's what she's trying to do."

I beg to differ. She flat-out asked for the answer, as in "what's the infusion rate?"

Note that she didn't say "I can't figure out how to do the calculation." Asking that question, whether of us or of her instructors or of a tutor, would be classified as helping herself.

Her questions are technically classified as asking others to do her work.

BTW, it's never helpful to drag out that old "nurses eat their young" thing. If expecting that nursing students do their own homework is akin to "eating" them, so be it.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment