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My study group and I are studying for our upcoming pharmacology test. We have to pass this test in order to continue with our fall semester. This one particular problem has us scratching our heads. The problem is....The physician orders three units of packed red blood cells to infuse over four hours. Each unit contains 386ml of blood. How many ml/hr will the client receive? Initially we said to 386ml / 4 hrs which gave us 96.5 ml/hr. However while going over this problem again we were wondering is the (three units of packed red blood cells) thrown in there to throw us off or should we multiply the 386ml by 3 to find the total volume? Can anyone assist us with this problem?

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Initially we said to 386ml / 4 hrs which gave us 96.5 ml/hr. However while going over this problem again we were wondering is the (three units of packed red blood cells) thrown in there to throw us off or should we multiply the 386ml by 3 to find the total volume? Can anyone assist us with this problem?

If ONE unit is 386 mL, and you gave ONE unit (96.5 mL/hr for 4 hours) you'd have made a medication error, now wouldn't you? Since you were told to give THREE and all... ;) Don't be looking out for trickery with these problems. Maybe you have a teacher who's a bit off, but most teachers actually want you to learn the material and they want to present you with as many "real life" examples as humanly possible before you are in contact with patients.

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Specializes in ICU.

What you've figured is how much per unit to administer over the course of 4 hours. The order, however, is for 3 units. Multiply 96.5ml by 3 to get your per hour dosage for three units.

You could also multiply 386 ml by three and then divide the figure you come up with by 4 to get the same answer.

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What you've figured is how much per unit to administer over the course of 4 hours. The order, however, is for 3 units. Multiply 96.5ml by 3 to get your per hour dosage for three units.

You could also multiply 386 ml by three and then divide the figure you come up with by 4 to get the same answer.

I would stick with the latter - since the first one is just fixing what was a mistake. The second equation is exactly correct from the word go.

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OK thanks a lot. I thought we were doing something wrong.

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