Dosage calculation

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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The physician order dopamine at 5 mcg/kg/min. The concentration is dopamine 2 g in 250 ml of 0.9 % NS. The patients weight is 80 kg. how many ml per hour should the iv pump be programmed for???

please help asap

Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.

Please show us an attempt on your part and we will guide you.

Specializes in NICU.

TOS of this forum (or should be) is that students need to show an attempt at the dosage calculation before we are allowed to help.

Show us how you have worked the problem and we will join in to guide you to the correct answer.

Ok, I just dot know what to do with the minutes part in the order. My first step is to multiply 5 mcg by 80 kg weight. But,what to do with the min part ?

You were asked to provide a rate for dopamine dosed at 5 mcg/kg/min.

5 mcg * 80 kg is how much dopamine the patient will receive in 1 minute. What do you think you need to do next to determine the hourly rate?

X60min???

i am lost because we don't study dosage calculation in school, but have the exams!!!

Yes. When you do that, this will give you the number of mcg the patient receives in 1 hour.

What do you do next?

Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.

I highly doubt you are being tested on material that you have not covered in class or have reading assignments for.

As it stands there are several conversions you need to do to answer this question.

Convert grams to micrograms.

Figure out the concentration of the Dopamine

Figure out the total ml the patient will need to meet the 5mcg/kg

Figure out the rate needed to achieve that dose per minute.

Figuring out the mg/kg is only part of it and the easiest part at that.

Since available concentration is 2g in 250 ml. That means that the 24000 mcg= 24 g. And it is 3000ml

24,000 mcg is not 24 g, it's 24 mg.

You first of all need to figure out the conversion from 2g to mcg.

Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.

Where the heck did you get 24000mcg?

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