How do you get every dosage calculation right?
Answer
The Physician ordered 1 liter of normal saline to infuse over a span of 8 hours. The IV tubing you're using is 20 drops per milliliter. How many drops per minute will be infused?
The first thing is to look at the problem and see what unit we need to get to by the end of the problem. The units you need to end up are drops per minute. We're trying to figure out how many drops per minute will be given to our patient. Look at the problem again and see what were the original orders from the doctor. The Physician ordered 1 liter of normal saline to infuse over a span of 8 hours. On the left hand side of your paper put (order * have). Write 1L / 8 hours. Units need to cancel themselves out. We need to get rid of liters and milliliters. For every 1 liter you have 1000 ml. Now there is a liter and a milliliter on the top and the bottom so both of them can be crossed out. Now you're left with drops per hour but the stem asked for drops per minute. For every one hour there are 60 minutes. Now cross out hour and you are left with the units of drops per minute.
1L / 8 hour *20 gtts/ 1 ml * 1000 ml /1L * 1 hr / 60 min = 20000 gtts /480 min = 41.6 gtts/min =42 gtts/min
Now we've answered: Need? Order? Conversions? Solve? Round? Check?
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