Dosage Calculation RN Maternal Newborn Proctored Assessment 3.1
Dosage Calculation RN Maternal Newborn Proctored Assessment 3.1 ( 37 Questions)
A nurse is preparing to administer dobutamine 12 mcg/kg/min by continuous IV infusion to a preterm newborn who weighs 2 kg. Available is dobutamine 250 mg in 500 mL dextrose 5% in water. The nurse should set the IV pump to deliver how many mL/hr? (Round the answer to the nearest tenth. Use a leading zero if it applies. Do not use a trailing zero.)
Let’s calculate the IV pump rate for administering dobutamine to a preterm newborn.
Step 1 is to convert the dose from mcg/kg/min to mg/kg/min. We know that 1 mg = 1000 mcg, so we have:
12 mcg/kg/min ÷ 1000 = 0.012 mg/kg/min
Step 2 is to calculate the total amount of dobutamine the newborn needs per minute:
0.012 mg/kg/min × 2 kg = 0.024 mg/min
Step 3 is to convert this to an hourly rate:
0.024 mg/min × 60 min/hr = 1.44 mg/hr
Step 4 is to calculate the volume of the solution that contains this amount of dobutamine. We know that 250 mg of dobutamine is dissolved in 500 mL of solution, so:
(1.44 mg/hr ÷ 250 mg) × 500 mL = 2.88 mL/hr
So, the nurse should set the IV pump to deliver approximately 2.9 mL/hr (rounded to the nearest tenth).