Pharmacology Med Math Help.....

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I need some help on a couple of questions using dimenionsal analysis.

1. The physician has ordered 1000 mL D5W with 40,000 units of Heparin. You are to infuse at 2500 Units/hours. How may mL/hr will you set your standard pump??

2. Order: Adiminister 30 mL of antibiotic in 100mL of Normal Saline in 20 minutes. What will be the flow rate in mL/hour??

Thanks for your time and help...

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Specializes in SNU/SNF/MedSurg, SPCU Ortho/Neuro/Spine.

1000ml= 40.000u

Xml. =2500u

Cross multiply = 2.500.000 = 40.000 x

x = 62.5 round up to 63 ml/h

If 30ml antibiotic+100 ml of NS = 20 min

Multiply that to 3 equal 60 min, which is an hour = 390ml/h

Hope it helped

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Specializes in ER, ICU.

I'm not going to do the work for you, but most calculations of this type require that at some point you firgure the amount of drug in 1ml. From there you can usually figure the rest. In #2 the drug should be given in mg not ml. You should always know the concentration of what you are giving. Hope this helps.

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For you or anyone else who may be a bit perplexed by some tricky DA problems, take a look at this site:

http://www.alysion.org/dimensional/analysis.htm

I ran across it a few weeks ago when I was fine tuning my understanding of DA. The author (a nurse/instructor) gives some great problems, fun anecdotes, AND answers with full rationales that explain how he got the answers.

He walks you through many/if not all the problems. Try it, you'll like it!

I'll admit, there are a couple of problems that I simply do not get - at all. I've got the printout on my desk and I do go back to it, time allowing.

Maybe one of these days, I'll look at the unanswered questions and the light bulb will go off in my head. One can only hope...

Good luck!

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Ok great, thank-you. #2, thats the direction that I was going but not too sure.

Will keep these methods on hand.

Again, thanks for your help and time.. :))

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Thanks for all the tips and input.

Great website....

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For future info, it's usually really helpful if you post what answer you got and/or how you get there and then people can comment from there and help you out.

That way they can see exactly what area you are struggling on and help you out there, or they can just let you know you are correct.

Many might see this as trying to get someone to do your homework for you (please don't think I'm implying you're doing that because I'm not) and this would cause some not so nice responses. Just don't want to see you chewed out in the future!

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Will definately post, work for each problem and where I am stuck and/or need help at, because I always, always do my own work, and wouldn't want to imply anthing else, to anyone.

Just wanted some input from others which is very helpful, for more than one brain, adds more insight and knowledge to any problem.

Will post work from here..

Thanks

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Will definately post, work for each problem and where I am stuck and/or need help at, because I always, always do my own work, and wouldn't want to imply anthing else, to anyone.

Just wanted some input from others which is very helpful, for more than one brain, adds more insight and knowledge to any problem.

Will post work from here..

Thanks

Oh I definitely agree. I don't see anything wrong with getting some support and advice, at all. That's what the forum is here for!!

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