Setting Infusion pump

fiveofpeep · Oct 20, 2009

it is. 30 minutes X 2 = 1hr so you just multiple the volume X 2 as you did

and so on that 15 minutes X 4 = 1hr so you would X wev volume by 4

chare · Oct 20, 2009

hi! i'm a student rotating through icu and have a question. if the antibiotic bag reads 120ml/hr to be infused over 30 minutes, what do i set the infusion rate at? is 240ml/hr correct? thanks!

no, the label on the bag gives you both the rate (120 ml/hr) and time (30 minutes) to infuse. you are not given the volume to be infused. if you were told to infuse 120 ml over 30 minutes, then the rate would be 240 ml/hour. where i work, the label on antibiotics gives us all three variables. for example: 50 ml to infuse over 15 minutes at 200 ml/hour.

although with some of the newer infusion devices you only need either the volume or the rate, and the time to infuse and the device will automatically calculate the missing variable. however, should you need to calculate the missing variable this can easily be done.

if you have rate and time to infuse and need to calculate the volume, this can be done using the following formula: (rate x minutes to infuse) / 60.

if you have volume and time to infuse and need to calculate the rate, this can be done using the following formula: (volume / minutes to infuse) x 60.

if you have rate and volume to infuse and need to calculate the time to infuse, this can be done using the following formula: (volume / rate) x 60.

i hope this information is helpful. :specs:

fiveofpeep · Oct 21, 2009

sorry read the question too quickly. thats sort of a trick question mauahha

RamaMama · Oct 21, 2009

Thank you for the quick replies. I am not familiar with their pumps yet but they are the newer "smart" pumps I believe by Alaris. Anyway, I guess everything I need to set the pump would be right on the bag, because it was a 50ml bag, and the ml/hr (120) was given as well as the time to infuse over (30 min). So then there is nothing to calculate at all? I thought the nurse said their was only one calculation to do, but I can't figure out what that would be with all three pieces of info given on the bag. So I would enter rate as 120, VTBI 50, and I think the machine does the rest, I don't think it asked for the time, just rate and VTBI. Hope I have this right, thanks again!

chare · Oct 21, 2009

You were given the infusion rate and time. From here you need to calculate the volume to be infused.

All IV bags have an included overfill, typically ~5%. If you are using a commercially prepared antibiotic this overfill is not important. While the antibiotic might be labeled 1 gram in 50 mL, the concentration is actually 20 mg/mL so infusing only 50 mL administers the correct dose.

If you are administering an antibiotic that was prepared in the hospital pharmacy, then this overfill, as well as the volume of medication added is important. An antibiotic prepared in a 50 mL bag can easily contain ~60 mL. You need to take this into consideration and program an amount that will allow administration of the entire volume contained in the bag.

With the information that you were provided (120 mL/hour for 30 minutes), what volume would you need to program into the pump?

I hope this information was helpful. :specs:

RamaMama · Oct 21, 2009

Ok now I get it! So in this case VTBI would be 60, correct? Thank you Chare!