Help with Dosage Calculations

Nursing Students General Students

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I need help with this calculation. I did a cross multiplication, but am not sure that is the way to go with this question.

Calculate the dosage.

A patient with diabetes is receiving an insulin drip of 300 U Regular insulin in 150 mL NS at 10 mL/h. How many U/h of insulin is this patient receiving? U100 insulin: 100 U/mL

_____U/h?

This is what i did:

300U/150mL X 10mL/ 1h = 1500/300= 5

Specializes in 15 years in ICU, 22 years in PACU.

Whatever it's called (dimensional analysis etc) when you do your calculations take the units with the number.

For example: instead of 150/300 write it out 150ml/300units. Then when you actually do the math you will see the result is 0.5ml/unit. NOT units/ml which is what you want to calculate.

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Specializes in 15 years in ICU, 22 years in PACU.
If I divide 150u by 300, it would give me 0.5 u/ml I believe.

Do you see where you got your calculation backwards? You didn't have 150u. "The pharmacy label states 300units per 150ml".

This may be old news. Sounds like you got it already.

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