Question

a nurse is preparing to administer ampicillin (Principen) 50 mg/kg/day PO divided in equal doses every 6 hr to a child who weighs 88 lb. available is ampicillin oral suspencion 250 mg/5 ml. how many ml should the nurse administer per dose? (whole number)

Answer 1

To determine the dosage, convert the child's weight to kilograms, calculate the total daily dosage, divide it into the number of doses per day, and then use the concentration of the suspension to find the volume to be administered per dose. The nurse should administer 10 mL per dose.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student's question involves calculating the correct dosage of ampicillin for a child based on their weight.

First, we need to convert the child's weight from pounds to kilograms, knowing that 1 lb is approximately 0.453592 kg.

The child weighs 88 lb, which is equal to 88 lb × 0.453592 kg/lb = 39.904 kg.

The prescribed dosage is 50 mg/kg/day, so the daily dosage for this child would be 39.904 kg × 50 mg/kg = 1995.2 mg/day.

Since the medication is to be administered every 6 hours, there will be 4 doses per day.

Therefore, each dose should be 1995.2 mg/day ÷ 4 doses/day = 498.8 mg/dose.

The available ampicillin suspension is 250 mg/5 mL.

To find out how many mL per dose, we set up a proportion where 250 mg is to 5 mL as 498.8 mg is to X mL, thus X = (498.8 mg × 5 mL) / 250 mg = 9.976 mL.

Since we round to the nearest whole number, the nurse should administer 10 mL per dose.