Med Admin

I drew up 0.2 in a 3mL syringe and diluted it with 5mL of saline and I was told this is wrong....

Wait, please clarify exactly how you drew this med up - you state you used a 3mL syringe and yet drew up 5mL of NS?

Also, as Esme12 asked, please tell us what you were told other than that it was wrong.

Well, I have no idea what they're looking for and you haven't provided a clear problem statement... morphine would never be ordered by volume.

You say that you're going to give 0.2 mL which, given the 10 mg/mL concentration means 2 mg (which is a common starting dose for morphine).

The quickest and safest way to give the medication would be to grab a 10 mL flush, discard 1 mL, and then draw up the entire morphine contents from the vial giving you a syringe with 10 mg of morphine in 10 mL of solution... or 1 mg/mL

I can give you more guidance if you post the problem statement VERBATIM

You would never have a prescribed dose of morphine in ml, only in mg.

So let's start at the top, and begin with, "What dose has been prescribed?"

Then, it's, "The morphine comes in 10mg/1cc."

Then the question you want to answer is,

"If 1cc is 10mg, what part of that 1cc is (your desired dose)?"

Another way to do it is to dilute the morphine in enough saline so you have 1mg in 10cc. (Not adding 1cc to 10cc, that would be 11 cc!) Then it's easy to figure what part of that 10cc is (your desired dose).

You could also mix it in enough saline so that you have 1mg in 5cc, and figure out what part of that 5cc is (your desired dose).

See how that works?

thank you! yes it was 2.0 mg and a 10mg/1mL vial. I am wondering where the 0.2 comes in... I was never taught that way but I do think it is more accurate.

I used a 3ml syringe and drew up 0.2 and then used another syringe to dilute it with 5ml. I took the 0.2 and inserted it into the 5mL of normal saline.

Good to know and thank you!

I am wondering where the 0.2 comes in..

When you are drawing up volumes of medications, you should use the smallest possible syringe to ensure both accuracy and precision. For example, I would have used a 0.5mL or 1mL syringe to draw up 0.2mL of medication. That would result in a medication volume that is both accurate and precise. By using a 3mL syringe, you got an accurate, but not precise, volume of medication drawn up. Empty syringes come in 0.5mL, 1mL, 3mL, 5mL, 10mL, 20mL, 30mL, and 60mL sizes. Like I said, use the smallest syringe possible for the amount of volume that you have to draw up. If you are drawing up less than 0.5mL and need to be extremely precise, use an insulin syringe (10 units=0.1mL) or a med saver syringe.

I used a 3ml syringe and drew up 0.2 and then used another syringe to dilute it with 5ml. I took the 0.2 and inserted it into the 5mL of normal saline.

I don't think it's possible to measure 0.2cc in a 3cc syringe, certainly not as accurately as if you diluted the whole 10mg to a larger amount first, and then drew up the dose, or used a smaller syringe wth smaller increments measured on it, as described above. And with MS and other small-dose things, you want to be very accurate.

The smallest syringe usually available to us is 3ml. We do not use insulin syringes for other purposes. We also do not dilute anything unless instructed to by pharmacy or policy. We do put small increments such as .26 into a 3ml syringe to the best of our abilities however. I don't understand how OP put 0.2ml into the 3ml syringe but doesn't know where the 0.2 came from. So confused.