med math stumper- HELP!!

Published

Ok, I am taking my NCLEX in two days and here is a hum-dinger of an med-math problem that myself and my nursing friends cannot figure out. I am including the answer. This came off of a practice exam and I have seen the rational and still cannot figure it out. Can anyone help me?

The physician orders 1000 ml of NS. The IV is infusing at 25 microgtt/min. (Drop factor is microdrop). The nurse will calculate the infusion time as ____________ hrs.

The answer is 40.

Microdrop will mean 1ml=60gtts

In order to get microgtt/hour, you mulitply 25 X60=1500 microgtt/hour. 25micrgtt X 60min = 1500 microgtt

min 1hour hour

Now, since there are 60gtts in 1ml, you divide the 1500 by 60 to convert it to ml. 1500/60= 25ml/hr. 1500mcgtt X 1ml = 25ml

hour 60mcgtt hour

Since you have 1000ml total and you are infusing 25ml/hr, you divide 1000 by 25. 1000ml/25ml/hr=40 hrs.

Gosh I hope this helps and you can see where the factors cancel each other out. I'm not goo at explaining math.

I agree with the above....but I'll make it neater to see haha

you want hours

(hrs) 1hr...x...1 min..x....60mcgtt..x..1000ml =60,000

``` 60min```25mcgtt````1ml`````````````1500 and you get 40 hours when it all cancels out

LOL. I SUCK at trying to exlplain math. I make it so much more complicated usually! Yours looks loads better!!!

+ Join the Discussion