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Discussion

Medication Calculation Help--AGAIN!!

I posted here last week looking for some med calculation help and received an awesome response so i thought I would post again with another problem.

I think what confuses me is that it's confusing with all the extra stuff they seem to put into the problem. Here's the problem I have:

A client with a DVT is placed on a Heparin drip. The order reads to run the drip at 1200 per hour to the PTT between80-90 seconds. The concentration of the drip is 25,000 Units of Heparin in 250 mL of D5W. How many mL's per hour will the drip run?

Can someone please help!

Thanks!!!

Featured Replies

I posted here last week looking for some med calculation help and received an awesome response so i thought I would post again with another problem.

I think what confuses me is that it's confusing with all the extra stuff they seem to put into the problem. Here's the problem I have:

A client with a DVT is placed on a Heparin drip. The order reads to run the drip at 1200 per hour to the PTT between80-90 seconds. The concentration of the drip is 25,000 Units of Heparin in 250 mL of D5W. How many mL's per hour will the drip run?

Can someone please help!

Thanks!!!

25000 divided by 250 mL= 100 units/ ml

What the patient needs: 1200 units per hour and you have 100units/mL

1200 units divided by 100 = 12 mL/hr = 1200 units/hr

hope this helps

sweetooth

25000 divided by 250 mL= 100 units/ ml

What the patient needs: 1200 units per hour and you have 100units/mL

1200 units divided by 100 = 12 mL/hr = 1200 units/hr

hope this helps

sweetooth

  • Experts
a client with a dvt is placed on a heparin drip. the order reads to run the drip at 1200 per hour to the ptt between 80-90 seconds. the concentration of the drip is 25,000 units of heparin in 250 ml of d5w. how many ml's per hour will the drip run?

the basic problem is this:

you have heparin 25,000 units in 250 ml of d5w. you want to give 1200 units per hour. how many ml's per hour is that?
the information about the ptt is nonessential.
dose desired:
1200 units/hour

dose on hand:
25,000 units/250 ml

using dimensional analysis
:

1200 units/1 hour
(dose desired)
x 250 ml/25,000 units
(dose on hand)
=
12 ml/hour
(amount to give)

you can find many problems worked out that are similar to this on this thread in the nursing student forums: https://allnurses.com/forums/f205/dosage-calculations-88867.html - dosage calculations

you can find links to tutorials and medication calculation problems to practice working on post #3 of this thread: https://allnurses.com/forums/f50/nursing-math-thread-264395.html - the nursing math thread

  • Author

Thanks Sweetooth and Daytonite for your help. I knew it was something simple but for some reason I was getting tied up on the extra info.

  • Experts

nksando. . .there is a basic formula to setting up these problems:

dose desired divided by dose on hand gives you the amount to give.

the words i've put in bold face and the color purple will be the terms (quantities) that will constitute the actual mathematical problem you end up doing. so, when you read these word problems you need to be thinking. . .is the problem asking me to find the desired dose of the drug? . . is the problem asking me to find the dose of the drug i have on hand? . . is the problem asking me to find the amount of drug to give? any of these are possible variables that might be asked in a drug calculation question. the most common problems ask you to find the amount to give. if you pull that information out of the word problem the rest of the wording may be what i call a red herring (something used to deliberately divert your attention). those red herrings can cause you to get confused and waste a lot of time on a problem that is actually quite straight forward.

now, in more advanced problems you may have to do a little bit more fancy footwork to get to one or more of these three terms. sometimes you will have to work with fractions (ratios) because the term is expressed as, for example, milligrams per milliliters as in the case of a liquid medication and you can't ignore the liquid part of it. you may have to apply conversion factors because the drug comes in grams, but the dose you have to give is expressed as milligrams. but that is for later down the road. the point is, you are almost always putting together an equation of some sort that is giving you

dose desired / dose on hand = amount to give

in all my years of working as a nurse, this is the formula that i used the most, even for iv calculations.

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