Question

The nurse is preparing to administer a prescribed dose of intravenous dexamethasone (Decadron) to a client after craniotomy. The pharmacy supplies dexamethasone 40 mcg in 20 ml normal saline to be administered over 15 minutes. The nurse sets the IV pump rate of:

Options:
A) 5 ml/min
B) 10 ml/min
C) 15 ml/min
D) 20 ml/min

Answer 1

The nurse should set the IV pump rate to 1.33 ml/minute.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine the IV pump rate, we first need to calculate the total dose of dexamethasone in the 20 ml solution. The prescription is for 40 mcg of dexamethasone, which is already contained in the 20 ml of normal saline. Therefore, the total dose is 40 mcg.

Next, we need to determine the infusion rate to administer the dose over 15 minutes. To do this, we divide the total volume (20 ml) by the total time (15 minutes):

Infusion rate = Total volume / Total time = 20 ml / 15 minutes = 1.33 ml/minute

Therefore, the nurse should set the IV pump rate to 1.33 ml/minute.