Christina Rafano teaches a five-step dimensional analysis method for IV drip calculations that replaces traditional formulas. The approach covers microdrip and macrodrip tubing, drops-per-minute calculations, and pump settings, with worked examples showing how to solve complex orders without memorizing separate formulas.
Chapters
In this video we are walking through how to do IV drips dosage calculations the easy way. There are a lot of different formulas and ways to do dosage calculations in nursing school, but this my friend, is literally the best way to do it. And you don't even have to memorize a formula. So let's walk through how to get IV drip dosage calculation problems right every single time. Hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell. Let's dive in. So if you've watched any of our other dose calc videos, you've probably already heard me say that formulas for dose calc are useless. Well, that's not entirely true. They can be helpful when you are just starting nursing school. But as you advance through your program and you need to solve more complicated, complex dose calc problems like Pitocin, Heparin and calculations that require multiple conversion factors, using formulas becomes a huge pain. Just take it from our other nursing students, our simple step by step process is the easiest way to solve dose calc problems for nursing school. So let's walk through the simple step by step process here first to lay the groundwork and then we will really put it into action and do several practice IV dose calc problems. Now if you want this full step by step guide to dose calc plus over 100 practice problems and flashcards to help you learn all of these conversion factors, you will definitely want to check out the dosage calculation Nursing school box that we have available for you has all these goodies and more resources to help you gain confidence with dose calc and pass. So the link is down below in the description for you to check out all the details so you can snag all of this. So step number one is to figure out what unit you need to end up with at the end. What is the question actually asking you for? This is step number one because you need to figure out what you need to end up with at the end first so that you know what conversion factors to use. It's really important that you do this first or you will end up with the wrong answer. So step number one is to figure out what you need to end up with at the end. Now for IV dose calc problems this will probably be something like drops per minute or gtts per minute milliliters per hour or how much time it might take to infuse the whole bag. So figure out what the question is actually asking you for. So step number two is to figure out what the prescriber ordered. What is the original order that we are Trying to convert. And don't worry if this isn't making sense quite yet. I promise you it will in just a minute. When we go through the practice problems, we're just laying the groundwork here, the foundation here first to get you familiar with the steps. So stay with me. And then step number three is to decide what conversion factors you need to use. What medication or unit does the question make available to you? Now, for I IV dosage calculations, you will need to know the difference between Microdrip IV tubing and Macro Drip IV tubing. A Macro Drip tubing can give between 10 to 20 drops per ML. You'll see this written as GTDS ML. You'll see 10, 15 or 20 drops per mil with a macro drip tubing. And the dose cal question will tell you which one to use. Now, microdrip tubing is a little different though. It's always going to be 60 drops per milliliter. So if the question states that you will be using micro drip tubing, you should automatically know that that means it's 60 drops per milliliter. Now, step number four is to solve the problem. Multiply across the top line, multiply across the bottom line, and then divide both of those numbers. Now this is super awesome math trick that does the conversions for you. And it's really one of the top reasons why I love writing out dosage calculations. It just makes it so easy to get the correct answer every single time. And remember, don't worry if you can't visualize this right now just yet. Hang on, we are going to go through a lot of practice problems to help it really come together for you in a minute. And then step number five is to write the answer appropriately and then follow the correct rounding rules and rules around the use of zeros. And there's really two rules that you need to know. The first rule is when you're using dimensional analysis method, you do not round the answer until the very end. So as you're multiplying across the top and the bottom, just write those two numbers exactly how they are. Don't round them until after you divide and get the final answer. If you round the top and the bottom numbers before you divide, then the answer might be off and you will get it wrong. Now, there are a few principles to know for rounding rules when it comes to IV dose calc problems. If the question is asking you for how many drops a patient will receive, drop always rounded to whole numbers, you can't look at the drip chamber of an IV tubing and Accurately count half a drop or a quarter of a drop. It doesn't work that way. So drops are always rounded to whole numbers. And for an IV pump, the question should tell you what place to round to. It will usually be either the tenth or the hundredth. And finally, the last step before we move on and then do several practice problems or practice questions is to check your work. It's really important to check that you got it right because we all make mistakes sometimes, but the patient's life here can depend on this. So it's really important that you be diligent and then double check your math, take a step back, take a deep breath and do the problem again. Safe nursing practice is always your number one priority. So now that we've gone through the steps, I'm going to have our lead lead nurse Nicole walk you through several IV dose calc practice problems to really help all of this come to life and help you visualize it a little bit better.
Alrighty. Lydia is ordered for 384mls of packed red blood cells over three and a half hours. Your IV tubing has a drip rate of 15 drops per milliliter. How many drops per minute will the patient receive? All right, first things first. What do we need? So we need drops per minute per minute. Now what's ordered? We have 384mls over three and a half hours. So 384ml over 3.5 hours. We know we're going to need one hour equals 60 minutes. And we know we're going to use this 15 drops per milliliter. So let's go ahead and solve 384ml over three and a half hours. And we're going to try and get rid of our hours first. So one hour equals 60 minutes and we can cross off our hours here. Now let's get rid of our drops per ML. So we get rid of our ML. So we are going to have one ML here and 15 drops up here. We'll be able to cross off our mls and we're left with drops. So now we are good. We are left with drops per minute so we can multiply across the top and we're going to get 5, 7, 6, 0. Multiply across the top or across the top and then across the bottom and we are going to get 210. Divide them out and we're going to get 27.428. Now let's get it to a whole number since we can't have a partial drop and we're going to have 27 drops per minute. Your patient Mike has ordered one liter of normal saline to run over eight hours. You will be using macro drip tubing at 15 drops per milliliter. How many drops per minute will the patient receive? Okay, first things first. What do we need? So we are going to need drops per minute. So drops per minute is the unit we want to end up with. Next is going to be what is ordered. So we have one liter over eight hours. So one liter over eight hours. Now what conversions are we going to need? We know our macro drip tubing is 15 drops per milliliter. So we are going to use that. Are there any other conversions that we need from our hours to minutes? We know we're going to need one hour equals 60 minutes. And then we are using liters and we're going to somewhere in here. Need to use get to milliliters. So we are going to do one liter equals 1,000 milliliters. All right, we are good to set up our conversion and go. So we are going to start with 1 liter over 8 hours. And then let's get rid of our hour first. So one hour, 60 minutes and that's going to get rid of our hour hour. We're left with minutes here. Let's get rid of our milliliters. So we need to go from liters to milliliters. So we want our one liter to be down here so we can cross it off. We're going to do 1,000 milliliters up here. Liters is crossed off. We're good there. Now next we can use our milliliters to get our drops per milliliter. So we can go in here, our milliliters on the bottom. So 1 milliliter and then 15 drops and our milliliters are going to cross and then we are left with drops per minute, which is what we want to end up with over here. So we are good to solve. Multiply across the top and we are going to get 1500. Multiply across the bottom and we are going to get 480. Divide them out and we are going to get 31.25 round to our whole number because we can't have half or quarters of a drop. So we're going to get 30, 31 drops per minute as our answer. Okay, your patient is ordered for 750 milligrams of linazoloid diluted in 250 milliliters of normal saline. In order to run over four hours, you are using micro drip tubing. How many drops per minute will the patient receive. Okay, so first things first. What do we need? So we are going to need drops per minute. So GTT s is drops per minute. Now, what is ordered? So we have 750, which we actually don't need because we really want this volume. So 250 mls over 4 hours. So 250 mls over 4 Hours is what we need. Now we also are going to know that anytime we see micro drip tubing, we are going to know that that micro drip is equal to 60 drops per milliliter. So that is a conversion that we're going to need to know. They won't necessarily give it to you in the so we will need to know that 60 drops per milliliter is microdript tubing. Now, we also are going to need to get from hours to minutes. So we're going to need to do one hour equals 60 minutes. And now we're ready to solve. So let's do 250ml over four hours to start and let's get rid of our hours. So one hour equals 60 minutes. We can cross off our hours here and we are good to go. Next, let's try to get rid of this milliliters because that's not in our end answer. So let's get our milliliters down here, which is going to be 1 milliliter is 60 drops. Now we are crossing off here. So we are already left with drops per minute. So we are good to go. We can multiply across the top and we're going to get 15,000 and then multiply across the bottom and we're going to get 240. Now go ahead and divide that and we're going to get 62.5. Now, we can't have a decimal. We can't have like half of a drop. So what we're going to do is round up because we're at 0.5 and we're going to do 63 drops per minute. And that is your answer. Okay. Your patient Jaclyn is receiving 1 gram of ampicillin diluted in 200 milliliters of normal saline every 12 hours to infuse in 45 minutes for a severe UTI. How many milliliters per hour will you set the IV pump to run at? Run your answer to the nearest hundredth. Okay, first things first. What do we need? How many milliliters per hour? That's what the question is asking. So milliliters per hour is the unit we want to end up with. Next is what is ordered. So there's a lot of extra information in here. We do not need this. We need the 200ml of normal saline in 45 minutes. So we don't need this every 12 hours because we are just solving for right now what are we going to have the IV pump run at? So we just need 200mls in 45 minutes, 200mls in 45 minutes. Now we need to get from minutes. So 60 minutes equals one hour because we want to end up with hours. So we know we're going to need that conversion. And now we can go ahead and solve because we have our 200ml over 45 minutes. We're gonna put our minutes up here, 60 minutes in one hour. Then we're gonna be able to cross off our minutes. Minutes be left with milliliters per hour. So we are good to multiply across the top, multiply across the bottom and divide them out and we are going to get 266.67 milliliters per hour. Your patient Janet is to receive 850 milliliters of lactated ringers at a rate of 75 milliliters per hour. How long will it the ordered dose to infuse in hours? Round your answer to the nearest hundredth. Okay, so first step is going to be what do we need? So what do we need to end up with? We need to end up how long in hours? So we need to get to hours. Now next up is what's ordered. Now we have 850mls at 75 an hour. So 850mls at 75ml per hour. So we know that we are going to need to get from milliliters per hour to just hours. So we're going to start off with 850mls over one because we just have 850mls. That's the total volume. And we are going to try to get two hours. Now we want to put our milliliters down here because 75 milliliters in one hour. That way our milliliters can cross off and we're left with just hours, which is what we want. So we're going to do 850 divided by 75 and we're going to end up with 11.3 hours. And it says round to the nearest hundredth. So 11.33 hours is going to be our answer.
Now, I hope all those practice problems were helpful for you. And remember, there's also three ways that I can help you more with dose calc in nursing school. Number one, download this free cheat sheet that walks you through the step by Step process for acing Dose Calc. Don't miss that. Number two get the Nursing School Dose Calc box so you can snag all those flashcards. Get that full workbook with over 100 practice problems and then all the other goodies to help you build confidence to pass your Dose COC exam. And of course if you want me to hold your hand through Nursing School and come alongside you through your nursing school journey, do not miss out on joining the Nursing SOS Membership Community. It is filled with step by step nursing lectures to help you understand everything faster including a full dose count course with additional practice questions for you to go through. Plus you will get access to our wonderful nurses so that you can ask questions anytime you get stuck. We are here to help. Now the links to all of those things are in the description down below and if you like this video, make sure to hit that like button. Leave a comment below of course, to let me know that you loved it. Share it with your friends if they need help with Dose Calc as well. And of course hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell so you never miss a future video. And click on one of these videos right over here so you can you can keep rocking Nursing School. And as always my friend, go become the nurse that God created only you to be. And I'll catch you next time on the Nursing School Show. Take care. Bye bye.
