IVP Medication Problem

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I was hoping someone could help me out with how to do the IVP medication problems that usually give a picture of a syringe with it. My class wasn't taught how to do them in our fundamentals class, and the semester starts tomorrow with a dosage calc. exam first thing.

So a problem I have is this:

The IVP medication to be given is 5 mL to be given over 5 minutes. Over how many seconds will you administer each calibration on the syringe?

And then theres a picture of a 6 cc syringe.

The only struggle I have with these problems is the "How many seconds will you administer each calibration on the syringe".. I don't want to assume that since we haven't seen these types of problems, we won't be tested on them.

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Perhaps I'm not understanding this correctly, but this seems like a really easy question.

You have 5mL that you need to give over 5 minutes. That boils down to 1mL/minute. Based on how the syringe is marked (in 1/2 mL, in 1/4 mL, etc), then you'd divide from there.

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Its just that the answer key says "give each calibration on the syringe over 12 seconds" and I don't understand how they got that.

This probably is an easy question for most but I've only gotten through one semester so far lol, and I don't remember doing IVP and calibration problems like this one

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This problem seems to revolve around basic math. As far as the "calibration on the syringe over 12 seconds", are they asking for where the plunger would be within the syringe at 12 seconds over the course of the entire push? Thankfully, you have a 1:1 ratio to calculate this problem with. That makes it fairly straightforward. You know that you will give 1mL over 1 minute, so every 12 seconds, where would the plunger be?

Look at it this way: 1 minute divided by 12 seconds is 5. So 1mL / 5 = 0.2 mL pushed every 12 seconds.

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I'm a very visual person. So here's a photo of the syringe referenced in the question. How do the marks on this syringe align with the question posed in the problem?

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Specializes in Med-Surg ICU.

You're giving 5ml over 5 mins. Or 1ml/60 seconds. Each ml on the syringe is divided by 5 calibration marks. So 60 seconds divided by 5 marks is 12 seconds per mark. Does that make sense?

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I'm a very visual person. So here's a photo of the syringe referenced in the question. How do the marks on this syringe align with the question posed in the problem?

I often ask people to sketch out this sort of thing. Sometimes it makes it easier to see. You have the answer now, and, I hope, a way to think about similar questions in the future.

The other thing to remember about this sort of situation in practice is that sometimes you might have a really, really small volume of med to give over, say, 5 minutes, and it might be very difficult to do. So what you will do is dilute it in 5 or 10 cc so it's easier to give those fractions.

Soldier Nurse, how do you get those picture to get into your posts? I can never make it work.

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Soldier Nurse, how do you get those picture to get into your posts? I can never make it work.

I always upload them using the "insert image" option (it's 4 in from the smiley button on the toolbar that appears above the post when you're typing), though for whatever reason, my computer likes to make me "go advanced" before it'll upload. I've tried to paste them into the post, but they end up looking wonky or just not showing at all. :)

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Testing this skill:

Hmm, it appears that one can slide it side-to-side to see all of it, but I can't make it smaller. What the heck. Thanks!

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Don't feel bad. I've never been able to control the size of the image, either!

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But did we solve the OP's problem?

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