IV drip rate calculations...HHHEEELLLPPP!

Nursing Students Student Assist

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Hi all. I'm a 2nd semester student who has just started his first semester in Pharmacology.

My Peds teacher (of all people) gave us a math assignment to calculate IV med rates on our first day.

After much researching and digging into our pharm calc books, nobody in our class can figure out these questions.

Sorry if these seem elementary for some of you all, but any help is appreciated!!

Here's 2 of the questions:

Determine the volume of solution that must be added to the burette to mix the following IV drugs. Then calculate the flow rate in gtt/min for each administration using a microdrip, and indicate the mL/hr setting for the pump.

1. An IV medication of 75 mg in 3 mL is ordered diluted to 55 mL to infuse over 45 min.

Dilution volume _________ gtt/min___________ mL/hr_____________

2. A dosage of 100 mg in 2 mL is diluted to 30 mL of D5W to infuse in 20 min.

Dilution volume _________ gtt/min___________ mL/hr_____________

THANKS again, and if someone could show me how you came up with the answers, that would be super helpful.

Specializes in PICU, surgical post-op.

My Peds teacher (of all people) gave us a math assignment to calculate IV med rates on our first day.

I know you've gotten the info to help you with the math, but I just had to comment quick on the "peds of all people" giving an IV calc question ... it's because there is no such thing as standard dosing in peds. People from the adult world don't understand us. They think in terms of vials, we think in terms of kilos. Everything in the peds world is based on and calculated using the kid's weight. You do more med calculations in peds than pretty much anywhere, as far as I know. =)

Thanks for your input...it turns out it was a trick problem:confused: I didn't see your post till tonight but I put that there was not enough info.

what was the "trick", and what was the reason for it?

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
Thanks for your input...it turns out it was a trick problem:confused: I didn't see your post till tonight but I put that there was not enough info.

Ah ha! How very clever that you did pick up on that! Your instructor was checking to see if you understood that all the elements necessary to perform the calculations were there and you got it!

Let me say that this kind of situation does come up in actual practice on occasion. You'll get a vial of powdered medication that needs to be reconstituted and injected or infused into the patient and there are no instructions on the vial itself and the pharmacy didn't send any. What are you going to do? Usually, you can just call the pharmacy and ask them. If you have a PDR on the unit you can often find the information there.

Good work, mrsbigwood1!

what was the "trick", and what was the reason for it?

The "trick" was that there was missing information that was needed to determine the answers to the questions that were being asked. If you re-read mrsbigwood1's problem it asked how much NS was to be used to dissolve the Ampillicin powder in a bottle that has come from the pharmacy. Most pharmaceutical companies provide very specific information and instructions on what solutions and what amount of a solution are to be used to reconstitute these powders. The reason is often because of the pH of the resulting solution. Some of these powders actually come with the solution you are supposed to use. Solu-Medrol and Solu-Cortef are two that I can think of that come with their own reconstitution solutions.

The reason that teacher would ask a question like this, I imagine, is to see if students are understanding which elements are necessary to complete drug calculation problems. A student who doesn't have a clue of what is going on might come up with some sort of answer for this question that would be absolutely "off the wall". Even worse, in actual practice, who knows what that kind of person might end up doing! Poor patient is the one who suffers. Would you want that kind of nurse taking care of you????

You always have to be thinking about what you are answering and what you are doing in nursing. And, while the instructor here was being a bit "tricky", in actuality, these kinds of situations do actually occur in clinical practice!

my question should have been "WHY" not what....the what was obvious.....

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