MED MATH PROBLEM

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Sorry for all the questions guys - my classmates and I will be asking my instructor on our Lab day but it's a ways and we would like to know so we can keep practicing similar problems. So, the questions reads like this:

Doctor orders Total IV fluid restriction of 2400 ml per day. Currently the IV NS is infusing at 75 ml/hr,

during your 12 hour day shift you have to hang two medications and on the night shift they will have to

hang the same ones again, one is in three 50 ml bags to run over 3 hours and the other is in a 250 ml bag

to run over 45 minutes.

5) How many ml/hr should the maintenance IV fluid be running? ___________

6) If the patient complained of pain near the IV site and radiating up the arm what would

you do?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

There were 2 different ways we solved it .. a few of us did the following:

2400-800(total going in) = 1600 ml - we all did this step the same

some divided the 1600 ml by 24 hours and others divided 1600 by 16.5 hours. The rational of 16.5 hours is that it takes 7.5 hours to give those medications mentioned. We're not sure if we subtract those hours or if they would run together since its a maintenance fluid - would we stop the maint. fluid?

Thank you for your help!!!

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Specializes in NICU.

The info is not complete but no you usually do not stop the maintenance fluid unless it is incompatible with the meds.

Pain at iv site,radiating up the arm..stop meds,slow iv check site might be phlebitis and needs a new iv site.

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19 minutes ago, Leader25 said:

The info is not complete but no you usually do not stop the maintenance fluid unless it is incompatible with the meds.

Pain at iv site,radiating up the arm..stop meds,slow iv check site might be phlebitis and needs a new iv site.

Sorry I copied the entire question from our handout .. that's all the Information that was given to us. I didn't mean to post the second part of the question .. just the math portion. I assumed the same about not stopping the fluid but the nursing tutor stated we did subtract it .. thanks for your help!! I'll update how my instructor tells us is the way he wants us to do it!!

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On 8/26/2019 at 11:58 AM, Johaanas said:

Sorry for all the questions guys - my classmates and I will be asking my instructor on our Lab day but it's a ways and we would like to know so we can keep practicing similar problems. So, the questions reads like this:

Doctor orders Total IV fluid restriction of 2400 ml per day. Currently the IV NS is infusing at 75 ml/hr,

during your 12 hour day shift you have to hang two medications and on the night shift they will have to

hang the same ones again, one is in three 50 ml bags to run over 3 hours and the other is in a 250 ml bag

to run over 45 minutes.

5) How many ml/hr should the maintenance IV fluid be running? ___________

6) If the patient complained of pain near the IV site and radiating up the arm what would

you do?

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

There were 2 different ways we solved it .. a few of us did the following:

2400-800(total going in) = 1600 ml - we all did this step the same

some divided the 1600 ml by 24 hours and others divided 1600 by 16.5 hours. The rational of 16.5 hours is that it takes 7.5 hours to give those medications mentioned. We're not sure if we subtract those hours or if they would run together since its a maintenance fluid - would we stop the maint. fluid?

Thank you for your help!!!

I would think they want you to answer as if the medications can be safely run concurrently with the maintenance fluid (so an answer of 67 ml/hr). Otherwise there's no way to answer without knowing which of the meds is compatible and which isn't (or perhaps neither of them are, theoretically). KWIM? You get one answer if you need to stop the maintenance fluids during the 3 hour infusions, a different answer if you need to stop maintenance fluids during the 45-minute infusions, and yet a different answer if you need to stop maintenance fluids during the infusion of both the other meds.

You could just calculate different answers for all possibilities to prove how smart you are. ?

?

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