Questions: A nurse is preparing to administer 0.9% sodium chloride (0.9% NaCl) 500 mL IV to infuse over 2 hr. The drop factor of the manual IV tubing is 10 gtt/mL. The nurse should set the manual IV infusion to deliver how many gtt/min? (Round the answer to the nearest whole number. Use a leading zero if it applies. Do not use a trailing zero.) gtt/min

Solution Steps

To convert the infusion time from hours to minutes, multiply the time in hours (2 hours) by 60.

\[T_{\text{min}} = 2 \times 60 = 120 \text{ minutes}\]

The infusion rate in mL/min is calculated by dividing the total volume of the IV fluid (500 mL) by the total infusion time in minutes (120 minutes).

\[\text{Rate}_{\text{mL/min}} = \frac{500}{120} = 4.167 \text{ mL/min}\]

The infusion rate in drops per minute is calculated by multiplying the infusion rate in mL/min by the drop factor (10 \mathrm{gtt} / \mathrm{mL}).

\[\text{Rate}_{\mathrm{gtt/min}} = \text{Rate}_{\text{mL/min}} \times 10 = 41.667 \mathrm{gtt} / \mathrm{min}\]

The final infusion rate in drops per minute, rounded to the nearest whole number, is $42 \mathrm{gtt} / \mathrm{min}$.

Final Answer: