quick question re: cardizem drip rate

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in oncology, surgical, ortho.

Hi all, sorry for the math question (who wants to do math when their not at work?!), but this is the quickest way I know to get an answer from experienced people :)

I'm a student nurse doing a preceptorship, and one of our patients a few days ago was on a Cardizem drip at 20 ml/hour for afib. The order said to titrate the drip to a maximum of 20mg/hour. The concentration was 125mg/150 ml. When we came on shift we were told her heart rate was still in the 130's but she was maxed out on Cardizem. I think I'm doing the math right, but wouldn't the maximum rate for her be 24ml/hour? I didn't ask the nurse I was with because she wasn't my usual preceptor and didn't seem to want me around, plus the doctor came in shortly after and wrote new orders. I just thought I knew what I was doing when it came to figuring out the rate, so I'd like to know if I should drag out the med calculation book and review! Thanks to anyone who feels like doing math and helping out a nursing student!

Ashley

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Specializes in Telemetry, ICU, Resource Pool, Dialysis.

Cardizem should be 1:1. 125mg mixed in 100 ml. We use cardizem vials with 125mg in 25ml. Add that to the 100 NS and you have 1mg/ml.

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Specializes in oncology, surgical, ortho.

Ahh, so my math is right, I just read the bag wrong :rolleyes: sheesh. Thanks!

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Specializes in Telemetry, ICU, Resource Pool, Dialysis.

Any time!:) Good luck with your preceptorship!!

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