medical dosage problem

[sunshine0808]

I have a medical dosage problem and it has been a while since I have had to calculate. Can someone help?

20,000 units of heparin in 500 ml NS

Give 2000 units/hr drip factor 15gtts/ml

? how many ml/hr and how many gtts/min

[Logan]

Hi,

But u cant give 12.5 gtt/min so one would have to round up to 13, no???

To answer your question:

It depends on the symptoms/problems the pt. presents with.

Example: If your pt. presents with a BP of 90/50 and you're ordered a nitroglycerin drip - your calculations say 1.5 ml/hr (based on 50mg Nitro in 250ml of dilutant).

Would you start at a rounded-up rate of 2 ml/hr?

Or start at an approximated rate of 1.5 ml/hr? (or even 1 ml/hr for the first 5 mins. till you can figure out the effects of the drug?)

Thanks,

Matthew

[sunshine0808]

Thanks for your input, I am thinking this is a trick question because there is no specific strategy for a formula to get this answer... Thanks again!

[Flames9_RN, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Hi,

To answer your question:

It depends on the symptoms/problems the pt. presents with.

Example: If your pt. presents with a BP of 90/50 and you're ordered a nitroglycerin drip - your calculations say 1.5 ml/hr (based on 50mg Nitro in 250ml of dilutant).

Would you start at a rounded-up rate of 2 ml/hr?

Or start at an approximated rate of 1.5 ml/hr? (or even 1 ml/hr for the first 5 mins. till you can figure out the effects of the drug?)

Thanks,

Matthew

Thanks Mat. in the real world that makes sense, but in a school world--at least ours, the rounding off is critical,lol so Im sure for my test purposes i would put 13. Thanks

[sunshine0808]

Thanks for the help, 13 was not an option on answers so I would use the 12.5

[mpccrn, BSN, RN]

who would run heparin on a gravity set in the first place??

[Bumashes, MSN, APRN, NP]

I got 50ml/hr and 13gtt/min. The reason I got 13 and not 12.5 is because you can't, in reality, actually give a half of a gtt, so you have to round up. At least, that's what they say in school. I guess if they were looking for exact math, though, and not the real world, then I'd go with 12.5

[Daytonite, BSN, RN]

I have a medical dosage problem and it has been a while since I have had to calculate. Can someone help?

20,000 units of heparin in 500 ml NS

Give 2000 units/hr drip factor 15gtts/ml

? how many ml/hr and how many gtts/min

In the future, these heparin problems can be solved very easily using the old dose desired divided by the dose on hand multiplied by the amount the dose on hand comes in to get the amount to give.

Dose Desired:

2,000 units

Dose on Hand:

20,000 units

Amount the dose on hand comes in:

500 mL

2,000 units/20,000 units x 500 mL =

50 mL

50 mL/ hour with a 15gtt set is 50/4 (shorthand method) =

13 gtts/min

On the student forums I would have worked this out by dimensional analysis for you.

[KBRN413]

yes, you can't give 12.5gtts. it would round up to 13..