Help

[Ladypink-37]

Hello, I'm a nurse and have a question, please don't think I'm stupid, yesterday my co-worker got an order for levaquin 750mg IV 150ml bag to run in 90min, which would make the rate 100ml/hr, but our facility has dial a flows and no pumps available at this time cause they are all being used up. So my question is can she just set the dial flow at 100cc/hr? My understanding is the size of the drip factor on the tube she was using which was 20gtt/ml so would she still set it at 100 cause I worked the problem out and with that drip set it would be 33gtt/ml so wouldn't she have to tweek the dial flow and calculate the drops for a whole minute? So who she set it to drop 33gtt/ml or 20gtt/ml. I worked the problem out as 150ml x 20gtt/ml divided by 90minutes and got 33.3gtt/min...please someone help me understand..every nurse at the facility thinks that whatever the order says that's what they go ahead and set the dial flow at but they don't take account of the dial flows macro drop set

[Burnvegas]

My understanding of dial a flo was they were set to certain drop factors, so using one for a gtt of 60 wouldn't work on an infusion set with a calibration of 20... My understanding is also it doesn't eliminate the need to count the drops all together and just set it to 100 and trust in the wee bit of plastic to do your job for you.

So yes, you're quite right the drops should be counted. And your maths is correct, too.

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

You can trust it to deliver tbe rate you set the dial a flow at as long as you are at least 3 feet above the level of rhe heart.