Help with math question! I hate these heparin ones...

[SparkleRN]

[h=1]you have 500ml of d5w with 25,000u heparin added[/h][color=#333333]the drop factor is 60gtt/min. what should the flow rate be if the patient is to receive 800 units of heparin?

i have no idea how to set this question up.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

think about what they give you first. don't get all panicky over all those unfamiliar things. calmly, now.

1) if you have 25,000 units in 500cc, how many units are there in one cc? (that's simple division-- 25,000units / 500cc) (let's pretend the answer is "x units / cc" but you do the actual division here ___________.

2) if you have to give 800 units (per hour-- you need that bit of information, as ivs are timed in cc/hr) how many of those one ccs do you need to get into the patient in an hour? (that's simple division too) (800 units / x units = number of cc in one hour)

3) drip factor is just telling you how many drops there are in a cc. if there are 60 gtts in one cc, how many gtts do you give in that amount you plan to give in one minute? that's your drops per minute. done. (as a shortcut, with a gtt factor of 60, cc/hr is exactly the same number as gtts/minute )

does that make sense?

there are a lot of formulas and structures people use to set up problems like this. you'll probably learn some of them, but whatever they are, this is the thought process that went into developing them. if you can think it through as if you were baking a cake but you have to cut down or increase the recipe, you can sorta eyeball the answer for reasonableness, also a useful skill.

any idea what an average heparin dose is? that will give you an idea if your answer is in the ballpark, or off by some huge factor.

you'll get this, really.