Question

The healthcare provider prescribes a fluid challenge of 0.9% sodium chloride 1,000 mL to be infused intravenously over 4 hours. The IV administration set delivers 10gtt/mL. How many gtt/minute should the nurse regulate the infusion? (Round to the nearest whole number)

Answer 1

The nurse should regulate the infusion at 42 gtt/minute to deliver 1,000 mL of 0.9% sodium chloride over 4 hours using an IV administration set that delivers 10 gtt/mL.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine the infusion rate in gtt/minute for the prescribed fluid challenge, we use the following formula:

Infusion rate (gtt/min) = (Total volume in mL × Drop factor) / Total time in minutes

The total volume in mL is given as 1,000 mL, the drop factor is 10 gtt/mL, and the total time is 4 hours. Since there are 60 minutes in an hour, the total time in minutes is 4 hours × 60 minutes/hour = 240 minutes.

Now we can plug these values into the formula:

Infusion rate (gtt/min) = (1,000 mL × 10 gtt/mL) / 240 minutes

Infusion rate (gtt/min) = 10,000 gtt / 240 minutes

Infusion rate (gtt/min) = 41.67 gtt/min

After rounding to the nearest whole number:

Infusion rate (gtt/min) = 42 gtt/minute