Heparin help

[kaylaas]

I don't understand heparin or the concentrations on the bottles (10000 units, 1000 units etc). How do you figure out how much to give if you're given a bottle? We didn't get any review time in class and I'm being tested on it Tuesday! Please give me an example if you can because im really trying to understand. Thanks!

[bella14k]

Ok let's say the order for a heparin drip is 20,000 units...this is usually going to be over a certain period of time intravenously. But you, the nurse, have to draw it up and spike a NS bag (1,000 ml).(I am trying to create a scenario, like the one I had last week). Let's say a vial has 40,000 units/mL, and the order is for 20,000 units. You will draw up 0.5 mL.

Let's say you wanted to give heparin to a patient for prophylaxis. The order is 5,000 units SQ.The available vial says there's 7,500 units/ mL, you would draw up 0.67 mL.

[bella14k]

Heh guess it's that time where I should probably stop studying for an exam on Monday and go to sleeeeeeep! sorry for the mistake!

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

The short answer is, "You read the label." No medication vial will be labeled only with the amount of the drug. It will give you the amount of the drug and in how much liquid/tablets/whatever it's in.

For example, your heparin will say something like, "Heparin sodium, 100 units per cc." Or, "Heparin sodium, 1000 units per cc." If you have had any success in doing med math, you should be able to take it from there.