If a patient’s IV is set to run 250 mL over 2 hours, what is the drip rate in gtt/min for a set with a drip factor of 20 gtt/mL?

To determine the correct drip rate in drops per minute (gtt/min), it is important to follow the appropriate formula. The formula for calculating the drip rate is:

Drip rate (gtt/min) = (Volume to be infused in mL × Drip factor in gtt/mL) / Time in minutes

In this case, the volume to be infused is 250 mL, the drip factor is 20 gtt/mL, and the time is 2 hours. Since time needs to be in minutes for the calculation, 2 hours converts to 120 minutes.

Now, substituting the values into the formula:

Drip rate = (250 mL × 20 gtt/mL) / 120 minutes

Calculating the numerator:

250 mL × 20 gtt/mL = 5000 gtt

Now, divide this by the time in minutes:

5000 gtt / 120 minutes = 41.67 gtt/min

When rounding to the nearest whole number, this results in approximately 42 gtt/min. Therefore, the correct answer for the drip rate, given the parameters, is 42 gtt/min. This demonstrates the importance of correctly applying the formula and converting time