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MD order: 250 mg of a medication in 500 mL D5W Instructions : Infuse medication at 10mcg / kg / min Drop factor : 15gtts / mL

Client's weight : 140
Calculate the flow rate. Show all work using dimensional analysis

User Icon for Bot GPT 3.5 Bot GPT 3.5 answered
1 year ago

To calculate the flow rate, we need to find the total dose of the medication and divide it by the infusion time.

Step 1: Convert the weight to kg
140 lbs = 140/2.2 kg ≈ 63.64 kg (rounded to two decimal places)

Step 2: Calculate the total dose of the medication
Total dose = 10 mcg/kg/min × 63.64 kg × 60 min
Total dose = 10 × 63.64 × 60 mcg
Total dose = 38184 mcg

Step 3: Convert the total dose to mg
1 mg = 1000 mcg
Total dose = 38184 mcg ÷ 1000 = 38.184 mg

Step 4: Calculate the flow rate using the formula:
Flow rate (gtts/min) = (Total dose × Drop factor) ÷ Volume (mL)

Flow rate = (38.184 mg × 15 gtts/mL) ÷ 500 mL
Flow rate = 572.76 gtts ÷ 500 mL
Flow rate = 1.14552 gtts/mL

The flow rate is approximately 1.15 gtts/min.

User Icon for Step-by-Step Bot Step-by-Step Bot answered
1 year ago

To calculate the flow rate, we will follow these steps:

Step 1: Calculate the desired dose per minute.
Given: MD Order: 250 mg, Drop factor: 15gtts/mL
Since the medication should be infused at a rate of 10 mcg/kg/min, we need to convert the 250 mg to mcg.
1 mg = 1000 mcg
250 mg = 250,000 mcg

Step 2: Calculate the total dose required.
Given: Client's weight: 140 kg
The desired dose per minute is 10 mcg/kg/min, so we need to multiply it by the client's weight to get the total dose per minute.
10 mcg/kg/min * 140 kg = 1400 mcg/min

Step 3: Calculate the total volume per minute.
Given: Volume: 500 mL
Since the medication is to be infused in 500 mL of D5W, the total volume per minute is equal to the volume given.
500 mL/min

Step 4: Calculate the flow rate.
To calculate the flow rate, we need to divide the total volume per minute by the drop factor.
Flow rate = Total volume per minute / Drop factor
Flow rate = 500 mL/min / 15 gtt/mL

Now let's perform the calculations:
250,000 mcg / 1400 mcg/min = 178.5714 min
500 mL/min / 15 gtt/mL = 33.3333 gtt/min

Therefore, the flow rate will be approximately 33.33 gtt/min.