Question

A patient is to receive 300 ml of fluid over 1 hour and the nurse will use tubing rated at 15 drops per mL (gtt/mL) to regulate the IV. Determine the IV flow rate in drop per minute (gtt/min).

Answer 1

Explanation:

First, we need to determine the total number of drops that need to be delivered in 1 hour (60 minutes). To do this, we can multiply the volume to be delivered by the number of drops per mL:

300 mL x 15 gtt/mL = 4500 gtt

So 4500 drops need to be delivered over 1 hour. To find the IV flow rate in drops per minute, we can divide the total number of drops by the number of minutes:

4500 gtt ÷ 60 min = 75 gtt/min

Therefore, the IV flow rate in drops per minute is 75 gtt/min.