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Discussion

Help with math??!

I've been doing practice questions all day since we must make a 90% or better on our math exam for Med Surg to move on and these are the ones I have been struggling with. Can anyone possibly explain them to me (or even just one of them!? If it was in dimensional analysis even better!

1. A person with a methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRF) infection is receiving vancomycin IVPB every 12 hours. The medication is available as 1.5 g in 200 mL of D5W to infuse over 4 hours. At what flow rate should the nurse set the IV pump? _____ mL/hr

2. A person with diarrhea is receiving 1 L D5NS with 30 mEq of by potassium chloride (KCl) to infuse at a rate of 1 mEq/hr. At what flow rate should the nurse set the IV pump? _____ mL/hr

3. A person with an abdominal infection is receiving metronidazole (Flagyl) via IV infusion every 8 hours. The medication supply provided by the pharmacy is metronidazole 250 mL to infuse over 90 minutes. The tubing drop factor is 20 gtt/mL. At what rate (in gtt/min) should the nurse regulate the IV infusion?

4. A person with an upper respiratory infection is receiving cefazolin via IV infusion three times daily. The medication provided is cefazolin 1 g in 250 mL D5W to infuse over 30 minutes. The tubing drop factor is 20 gtt/mL. At what rate (in gtt/min) should the nurse regulate the IV infusion?

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    • Featured Replies

    You should be able to do number 1 in your head. 200 ml over 4 hours is 200 divided by 4 which gives you 50 ml/hr.

    Number 2 set up using DA: ml/hr= 1000ml/1 L x 1 L/30 meq x 1 meq/1 hr = ? (cross off all units you don't need, multiply across then divide.)

    Number 3 set up using DA: gtt/min = 20 gtts/1 ml x 250 ml/90 min = ? (cross off what you don't need which is ml, and multiply across and divide)

    Same thing with number 4

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    I am taking pharmacology this semester and to be able to pass the class you have to pass the med math portion. One of the things that I have seen in some of the problems is sometimes you are given more information than what you actually need to solve the problem. This can cause issues for people sometimes, I think. If you don't feel comfortable with setting up dimensional analysis problems, you might want to check out some YouTube videos. I know that Khan academy has a video on dimensional analysis that does a good job on explaining on how to set up a problem. Also make sure you are comfortable with conversions, going from grams to milligrams to micrograms.

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    I agree with Esme12. Why don't you show us what you have done. This will make it easier for us to help you.

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    I know, I can't help it, Esme12! I just know what a panic math got me in before I got a handle on DA! So I figured I'd show her how to set them up........ Probably didn't help much though.... I had to watch someone do this with me at least ten times to get it.

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    • Expert

    ((HUGS)) LOL That is ok....I like to see where they are messing up. Which step are they aren't seeing. Are the distractors confusing them.

    I want them to learn it for good....we use math every day.

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    First you have to figure out how to get rid of the "distractors" in the question. Just try and narrow it down to two things. "What do I need?" and "What do I have available?" It makes it so much easier once you get around all those extra bits.

    I also suggest getting VERY comfortable with dimensional analysis. It's so helpful and I usually suck at math.

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