A six-step method for weight-based dosage calculations with two worked examples: dexmedetomidine at 1.2 µg/kg/hr for an 84 kg patient yields 25.2 mL/hr, and dobutamine at 5 µg/kg/min for a 157-lb patient yields 10.7 mL/hr.
In this video, we are going to walk through how to do weight based dosage calculations for nursing school. We will walk you through a simple step by step process to get weight based dosage calculations right every single time on your nursing school exams. And of course we have a full dosage calculations cheat sheet that walks you through this simple six step process for getting dose cup questions right every time. So don't worry, friend, you do not need to figure everything out alone anymore for nursing school. We are here to walk you through it. So that link is down below to that cheat sheet. So be sure to check it out. And if you want a deep dive into this six step process, be sure to check this video out right here along with all of the other videos in this dose calc series here on YouTube. Now our lead nurse on our team, Nicole is going to walk you through these weight based calculations. Practice problems. So hit that subscribe button and click the notification bell and let's dive in.
All right, let's get started with number two. You're hanging dexamettomidine on your patient. The order says 1.2 micrograms per kilogram per hour. And the bag you receive from pharmacy says 200 micrograms per 50 mls. Your patient weighs 84 kilos. How will you set up your IV pump? So what do we need? We need how we'll set up our IV pump. So that is milliliters per hour. Then we need our orders. So our order is 1.2 mgs per kilogram per hour and we have 200 mics per 50 mls. Now we know our patient weighs 84 kilos. So we have 1.2 mgs per kg per hour. That is our order. We need to know what conversions we have. We have kilograms here and we have kilograms. So we're not like the previous one. We needed the kilograms to pounds. We don't need that here. And then we also have our micrograms. And we have micrograms. So we don't even need those microgram conversions. So this is going to be a pretty different one to set up, but we'll walk through it together. So let's start with our weight again. We are 84kg this time over one. So we're already in our kilograms here. Now we know we have 1.2 micrograms per kilogram. So 1.2 micrograms per one kilogram. Then we can cross off our kilograms there. Then we know we have 50mls per 200 micrograms. 50mls per 200 microgramS. That's going to cross off our micrograms here and we have, we can multiply across the top, across the bottom, and we are going to get what we need. So 84 times 1.2 times 50 is going to be 5040 divided by the bottom 1 times 200. So then we are going to get our answer as 25.2ml per hour. Alrighty then, let's move on to number three. Your patient is receiving a doputamine drip. The order states 5 micrograms per kilogram per minute. Your patient weighs 157 pounds and the concentration you receive from pharmacy reads 500 milligrams per 250 mls. How fast should your dobutamine be infusing at? So again, step number one, what do we need? So how fast should it be infusing at? So we are going to go with milliliters per hour again. Now let's see what our order is. So we know we're gonna have five mics per kilogram per minute. So there we go. Five mgs per kilogram per minute. And what we actually have is 500 per 250. We know we have pounds up here, so we need to get to kilos. So 1 kg equals 2.2 pounds. And we know we have hours, so we're gonna need to get from minutes to hours. So 60 minutes equals one hour. And we have micrograms again and we need to get to milligrams. So 1000 micrograms equals 1 milligram. Alright, so let's start again. Our patient is 157 pounds. And let's put that over one. Let's get to kilos. So 1 kilogram equals 2.2 pounds. Then we can cross off our pounds there. Let's get from our pounds, we know micrograms, they have 5 micrograms per kilogram. So 5 mics per one kilo. Then we can cross off our kilos. Here we have 5 kilos or 5 micrograms, and we know we need to get to milligrams. So 1 milligram equals 1,000 micrograms. Cross those off there. We know we have 250 mls in 500 milligrams. So 250 mls in 500 mg. Cross off our milligrams there. We have milliliters. Right now we need to get to hours. So then 60 minutes is one hour and we're gonna get to milliliters per hour. So let's multiply across the top. We're gonna put it down here. Multiply across the top. We are going to get 11775 and then divide it by what we multiply across the bottom. So 2.2 times 1,000 times 500 is going to be and one this is going to be divided out 10.70 milliliters per hour. All right. So we check our units, we make sure we can cross everything off. We are good to go there. So we have solved the problem now.
I am so excited to finally tell you that we have a brand new dosage calculations course that we just released. It walks you through everything that you will need to know for your dose calc exam. Things like how to calculate IVs, how to do feeding tube calculations, reconstitution problems, heparin drip calculations. All of it. So if you are frustrated because you have to figure everything out yourself in nursing school, don't worry friend, we've got you. We will teach you everything that you need to know about dose Calc in this course. Now the link to that course is down below for you to check out all of the details. Now be sure to like comment, subscribe and share this video with a friend who also needs dose Calc help in nursing school. And check out these videos right over here so you can keep rocking nursing school and go become the nurse that God created only you to be. And I will catch you in the next video. Take care friend. Bye bye.
