help on dosage calculation plz

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Hello I am a pre nursing student in pharmacology and this question is stumping me I just cant figure it out, any help is appreciated!

Administer 500 mg of vancomycin IVPB over 60 min. q12hr. Medication is available in 100 ml of NS. the drop factor is 20 gtt/ml. at what rate will the IV pump be set for ml/hr?

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

Start by figuring out what they're asking you, then delete what you don't need to know.

Administer 500 mg of vancomycin IVPB over 60 min. q12hr.

Medication is available in 100 ml of NS.

the drop factor is 20 gtt/ml.

at what rate will the IV pump be set for ml/hr?

The 500mg of medication is irrelevant.

It needs to be administered over 60 minutes.

The q12hr is irrelevant.

You have 100ml of solution.

You're using a pump, so the drop factor is irrelevant.

Now what you're left with is you need to administer 100ml over 60 minutes' time.

What rate would you set the pump for when you want to give 100ml in 60 minutes?

100ml/hour

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oh thank you! i had no idea that stuff was irrelevant. this is only my second week of class and i know how to do dimension analysis but this problem was confusing me because of the 500 mg and most questions say ml when dealing with IV pump rate. thanks again.

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

As you progress in the program, you'll get incidents where the 500mg IS relevant -- it just doesn't happen to be in this instance, because they've also told you that the medication is available in a 100ml bag of NS.

In any nursing course (not just pharm), first break down the stem of the question -- what is it they're asking you to answer -- and then look through to see what info you need to figure out the answer.

You'll have times they tell you how old the patient is, what they weigh, when they last had a bowel movement, what room number they're in, how many days they've been admitted, male/female, etc., when NONE of those items is relevant to the question being asked.

Learn how to break down the ACTUAL QUESTION and you'll be ahead of the game when it comes to exam questions!

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thank you for your help

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.

You're very welcome!

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