iv infusion

Nurses General Nursing

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infusing 100mg of ampicillin in 100ml over 45 minutes - what's the infusion rate...?

Take the mls to be infused (100), multiply by the tubing size (either 10 or 60) and then divide by the minutes (45).

You MUST LEARN HOW TO CALCULATE DOSAGES FOR YOURSELF.

You MUST LEARN TO DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK.

Nice :rolleyes:. What the heck is wrong with helping someone figure out what steps to take or formula to use to solve the problem? Not everyone is stellar at math; giving someone an easy way to figure out a drip factor is kind!

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.
Nice :rolleyes:. What the heck is wrong with helping someone figure out what steps to take or formula to use to solve the problem? Not everyone is stellar at math; giving someone an easy way to figure out a drip factor is kind!

Again, OP did not ask for help/steps with calcuations. She asked for answers. As she did in her previous post today, which was moved.

I never, ever respond to post, However, I must do so now-- I would prefer a Nurse who ASKED for help, versus a NURSE who does not want to HELP for whatever reason- Nurses should have the heart to HELP. We all have our strenghts and WEAKNESS-- Any EVERYONE KNOWS that you can't pass NURSING WITHOUT KNOWING MATH- OMG I would not want to be YOUR PATIENT because I did not specifically ASK for HELP

I beg to differ. She flat-out asked for the answer, as in "what's the infusion rate?"

Note that she didn't say "I can't figure out how to do the calculation." Asking that question, whether of us or of her instructors or of a tutor, would be classified as helping herself.

Her questions are technically classified as asking others to do her work.

BTW, it's never helpful to drag out that old "nurses eat their young" thing. If expecting that nursing students do their own homework is akin to "eating" them, so be it.

Specializes in Psych/CD/Medical/Emp Hlth/Staff ED.
Again, OP did not ask for help/steps with calcuations. She asked for answers. As she did in her previous post today, which was moved.

She didn't actually specify either way, and if she did, you are still free to answer her question by explaining a process that could be used to find the answer, as multiple posters did here.

I'm sure next time she'll be more careful about how she phrases her post, but what's most concerning is that she or anyone else reading this might not ask at all.

Before you go to this website and plug in the numbers, think about this:

Anytime you are figuring a ml/hour rate which is 1 hour or less, ask yourself:

How many times does this number of minutes go into 60 (since there are 60 minutes in 1 hour)

Your example is: 60/45=1.3333333 x 100ml= your answer in ml/hour

Another example so you can get the idea is:

100 ml in 30 minutes:

Think to yourself: How many times does 30 go into 60?

The answer is 2 times. So you multiply the ml (here is it 100ml) x2=200ml/h

Hope that helps because you will be doing this a whole lot in clinical and real life so be sure to understand the concept.

Thanks. I'd completely forgotten how to do that. I'm always doing 30 or 60 minutes. :)

Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho, ASC.
She didn't actually specify either way, and if she did, you are still free to answer her question by explaining a process that could be used to find the answer, as multiple posters did here.

I'm sure next time she'll be more careful about how she phrases her post, but what's most concerning is that she or anyone else reading this might not ask at all.

Yes, god forbid they look to their textbook or instructor for help. Better to get the answer on the internet.

Thing is OP, you know it's the very beginning of the semester for most students. So, we all know that. Which means that, you really haven't put much time on your own into figuring this out. Heck you can search Allnurses and there is a math thread in the student section... but, you need to spend a little time there.

Specializes in Tele RN on the West Coast.
IMO if you can't do this type of basic math you have no business being in nursing school at all. I remember in my basic nursing program (a while ago now) we had a hard and fast med math test that you had to take the first semester to pass. If you didn't pass the test, you failed the course and had to retake. Fail that course again, you get kicked out of the program.

It was a lot of math problems like this......

These days the math test is the first week of every semester but you still get the 2 tries to pass with 100%. ;)

I agree with what you two are saying. I set up the problem and gave another example hoping it would help. Unfortunately, if all the student does is copy, then they will fail the math tests. In which case, they won't become a nurse. Students will just have to be smart enough to look at the concept/rationale set forth for them in order to pass their test. There are a lot of websites that will give the answer (just by plugging in the numbers.) I would think if they are asking it here, the student is looking for a rationale.

1. I just run it at 100 ml an hour over an hour. (usually running a med too fast will cause a problem; running it a little slower generally won't hurt anything)

or

2. I estimate the rate, then plug in the estimated rate and the volume on the pump and keep hitting "run" then "hold" on the pump until the time on the little screen on the far right says the amount of time I want. (I usually guess right on the first or second try.) Thanks Braun Medical for the great IV pumps!! *clap&

Specializes in Pulmonary med/surg/telemetry.

The best advice I can give you for all nursing math is to look at whatever answer you get and ask yourself, "Does this make sense?" Usually it's obvious if it does or not and you can tell right away whether you're close or whether you need to change the way you're doing the problem.

For example, if you have 100 ml of medication and it needs to be infused over 45 minutes, you know right away without calculating anything that it will be more than 100 ml/hr since you have to give it in LESS than an hour. Therefore, your answer of infusing 2.2 ml/hr would take over 45 HOURS! If you look at it critically you could tell right away that you need to look at it again.

Nursing math is definitely something that takes time to get used to if you're not a "math person." Good luck!

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