I have a stupid question. IV drip rates.

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I know I learned this in school, but when I was on the floor it confused me for some reason. I had a bag of Zosen that was 100ml and it said to infuse over 30 minutes so I set the pump to admin 100ml (RTBI) at a rate of 100. I understand the amt to be infused, but why was it infused at 100? I guess it threw me off and I'm not getting it something. Help please.

200ml is the correct answer

You have to remember that most IV pumps are programmed to run an IVPB over an hour. Also, when programming the pump for an infusion time that is less than one hr, you only have to determine the infusion rate. Leave the volume to be infused alone when actually setting the pump because it doesn't change(only when figuring out the infusion rate, as you'll see below).

So, the order calls for a 100ml bag to be run over 30mins. You need to figure out what the volume of the bag would be if the ordered infusion time was 60mins(because the IV pump is programmed to run meds over an hour). And what you do to one factor, you have to do the same to the other. So if 30mins x 2=60mins, then multiply the volume of the IVPB bag x2: 100ml x2= 200ml. Thus, 200ml is what your infusion rate will be and 100ml is the volume to be infused.

Sounds confusing, but honestly the math is pretty simple once you get the hang of it.

Thank you. This post helped. I think it confused me because of the hourly thing. Plus, I'm learning everything in bits and pieces (precepting) as there isn't much time for her to really explain everything I'm doing, I'm just sort of doing what she tells me. :lol2: :uhoh21:

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We were talking about this during our clinical lab today. We have 25mL of solution of infuse in in a half an hour but since you calculate the flow rate per hour, you double the 25mL of solution to get 50mL in a half hour. Please correct me if I am wrong since I didn't quite understand how to set the rates.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.
We were talking about this during our clinical lab today. We have 25mL of solution of infuse in in a half an hour but since you calculate the flow rate per hour, you double the 25mL of solution to get 50mL in a half hour. Please correct me if I am wrong since I didn't quite understand how to set the rates.

According to the scenario above, 50ml would be the correct infusion rate, however, make sure you keep the "volume to be infused" set at 25ml. Does that make sense?

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