Medication Calculation Question

Published

Hello everyone. I recently joined allnurses.com after finishing my first semester of nursing school this past fall. I was hoping someone could help me with a medication calculation problem I have been trying to figure out.

i have looked through my books trying to find a way to figure this one out and I just can't find anything to help me. So i thought i would post and see if someone can help me.

The question reads as follows:

Pepsid 20mg IV push is ordered. Available is 20mg in 2 mL. It must be diluted in 8 mL. If the infusion rate is 10mg/min how many mins will it take to adminster 20mg?

If someone could please help me and show me how to figure this out I would greatly appreciate it!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Okay, if you have 2mls and have to dilute it in 8 more, you have 20 mg in 10 mls. If you have to give 10mg/min, that would be 5 ml/min, so your answer would be 2 minutes.

This doesn't make sense to me, but this would be the answer with the numbers you gave.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in SRNA.

The way you've written this out, it'd take 2 minutes to administer 20mg.

10mg / 1 min = 20mg / x min, then cross multiply to get

10mg(x) = 20mg(1min)

x= 20mg(1min) / 10mg

x = 2 min

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med-Surg, Home Health.

You would give it over 2 minutes. You are giving a total of 20mg and it can be given 10mg per min. They give you extra info a lot of times. You really just have to figure out what part of it is relevant and not get caught up in the extra stuff (i.e. dilute in 8 ml---not really relevant in this particular question. If they asked how many ml's per minute, then you'd need that info, but not to figure out mg/min).

Anyway, hope that helps, and hopefully I didn't confuse you!:specs:

If you have any more questions, feel free to PM me.

Welcome and Good Luck in nursing school!

:grpwlcm:

Stephanie

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Yeah, Stephanie is right - they often put in extra information to trick you! I have just finished the first year of my nursing degree myself, and I don't remember getting such a complicated question as that one!

Nat.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in CVICU.

Stephanie, and Nat are CORRECT. They give us alot of extra info to see if we really know the correct setup.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I don't think the extraneous info is put in there to 'trick' anyone, but rather to gauge if you are able to wade through it all and determine what's pertinent to the actual question.

Reminds of a question on Boards. (I'll never forget lol) They went into a page-long scenario about this patient and his diagnosis. Included tons of info on lab and diagnostics, what medications he was getting, vital signs, and so on. At the end, the question was "You walk into his room as he throws his water pitcher at the wall. What is your response?"

"Duck" wasn't one of the choices, btw...

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thanks everyone for all the help. I knew it was a lot simpler than I was reading into and I was confusing myself even more by trying to use all the numbers they used in the question not really stopping to think that there would be exta stuff in there.

THANKS EVERYONE!!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Jack of all trades, and still learning.
I don't think the extraneous info is put in there to 'trick' anyone, but rather to gauge if you are able to wade through it all and determine what's pertinent to the actual question.

Reminds of a question on Boards. (I'll never forget lol) They went into a page-long scenario about this patient and his diagnosis. Included tons of info on lab and diagnostics, what medications he was getting, vital signs, and so on. At the end, the question was "You walk into his room as he throws his water pitcher at the wall. What is your response?"

"Duck" wasn't one of the choices, btw...

You are joking! I guess the answer was something to do with side effects of his medications and lab results?

'Duck' should definitely have been there! What about OHandS

Up Vote Up Vote ×
You are joking! I guess the answer was something to do with side effects of his medications and lab results?

No, the response they were looking for had to do with 'therapeutic communication' :icon_roll
Up Vote Up Vote ×
No, the response they were looking for had to do with 'therapeutic communication' :icon_roll

that s what i guessed,...lol

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

hi, nksando, and welcome to allnurses! :clrflwlcm:

pepsid 20mg iv push is ordered. available is 20mg in 2 ml. it must be diluted in 8 ml. if the infusion rate is 10mg/min how many mins will it take to administer 20mg?

20 mg
(dose desired
)/10 mg
(infusion rate)
x 1 minute
(time of infusion)
=
2 minutes
, time needed to administer the pepsid

you will find information on drug calculations for nursing students on the nursing student forums of allnurses on these threads:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion