How to Solve This Drug reconstitution problem?

[BEBE1004]

An order reads, "Cefapime 4grams IV every 8 hours." The drug is sent in powdered form with a 50ml mini-bag of normal saline for reconstitution. After looking up cefapime in the drug book, the nurse notes that the infusion rate for the drug is over 20 mintues. At what rate should the IV pump be set

[morte, LPN, LVN]

show your work....

[HumptyDumpty]

An order reads, "Cefapime 4grams IV every 8 hours." The drug is sent in powdered form with a 50ml mini-bag of normal saline for reconstitution. After looking up cefapime in the drug book, the nurse notes that the infusion rate for the drug is over 20 mintues. At what rate should the IV pump be set

Hmmm, is there enough info in this question? Disregard the 8 hours, its insignificant. The 4 grams is going to be put into 50 MLs, so therefore 50MLs over 20 minutes is 2.5 ML per minute?

[BEBE1004]

the answer was 150mls/hr.. just need the steps on getting this

[NewBeginning]

Humpty's steps get you 2.5 ML/min. Take that times 60 minutes in an hour and you get the 150 ML/hr you are looking for.

[misplaced1]

You are putting in 50 ml over a 20 min time period. Since you are using an infusion pump you have to normalize that to per hour (60 mins). So since you have 50 ml/20 min and you want to get the answer for 60 minutes all you have to do is times top and bottom by 3. That gives you 150ml/60min or 150 ml/hr. Just remember for a pump the bottom number has to be 60 minutes (one hour). You need to end up with an answer that is in ml/hr.

So, if you had 20 ml over 30 mins then that would be 40 ml/60 mins.

When I first read this I thought you were going to ask about putting the 4 gms in 50 mls of a specified solution. If you were questioning if that was ok you would have to look it up in your drug book.

[BEBE1004]

Thank u very much. I had missed multiplying by the 60mins.