Help with IV administration

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Hello. I am a new grad and am having trouble grasping what rate to set pumps at when admisinstering intravenous fluids. For example, when administering albumin or IV antibiotics how do you know what rate to set it at? My preceptor has tried to show me and help me do the math, but for some reason it is not sticking in my head. Can anyone explain this to make it easier?

So if I have an antibiotic that is 50ml to infuse over 30min how fast do I set the pump at? I realize this is probably a really stupid question, but I want to make sure I understand it completely. Please if anyone has any tips or tricks on IV administration, please let me know.

Thank you.

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Specializes in Intensive Care Unit.

Your pumps don't do that for you?

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Specializes in being a Credible Source.
Your pumps don't do that for you?
Mine don't... Besides which, have we really descended to a point where we need pumps to do such simple things for us?
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Specializes in being a Credible Source.
So if I have an antibiotic that is 50ml to infuse over 30min how fast do I set the pump at?
Well this particular one is super simple.

Say you wanted your 50mL to infuse over 1 hour, what would you set it at? 50mL/hr, right?

However, you don't want it to run over an hour (that is, 60 minutes) but rather over 1/2 hour (30 minutes). Therefore it needs to run twice as fast, right? Not 50mL/hr but 100mL/hr.

I realize this is probably a really stupid question, but I want to make sure I understand it completely. Please if anyone has any tips or tricks on IV administration, please let me know.

Thank you.

This is pretty rudimentary stuff. I'd advise you to work through some of the many online tutorials and/or get a decent book on the topic.

Please feel free to PM me for more detailed help on this stuff.

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50ml ----- 30 min

X ml ----- 60 min

(50*60)÷30= 100ml/h

And so on...

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Set up your equations. Remember you set the rate for x ml/1 hr (60 minutes).

You know that you need to infuse 50 ml over 30 minutes so...

50 ml X ml

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

30 min 60 minutes

Cross-multiply. 30x = 3000

3000 divided by 30 means x equals 100. So you set the rate for 100 ml/hr.

The equations work for everything!!

Hope that helps, PM me if you'd like help with other problems.

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Specializes in Intensive Care Unit.

Pumps are meant to improve safety, not replace math. It's always good to double check.

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