The healthcare provider prescribes regular insulin 8 units/hour intravenously (IV). The IV solution contains 100 units of regular insulin in 100 mL of 0.9% normal saline. How many mL/hour should the nurse program the infusion pump? (Enter numerical value only.)
The correct answer and Explanation is :
To determine the infusion rate in mL/hour for administering regular insulin via IV, follow these steps:
- Understand the prescription: The healthcare provider prescribes 8 units of regular insulin per hour.
- Know the concentration of the IV solution: The solution contains 100 units of regular insulin in 100 mL of 0.9% normal saline.
- Calculate the concentration in units per mL:
[
\text{Concentration} = \frac{100 \text{ units}}{100 \text{ mL}} = 1 \text{ unit/mL}
] - Determine how many mL/hour are needed to deliver 8 units/hour:
Since the concentration is 1 unit/mL, delivering 8 units/hour means you need 8 mL/hour to achieve this. - Program the infusion pump: Set the infusion pump to 8 mL/hour.
Explanation:
To administer a specific dose of medication via an infusion pump, it’s crucial to understand the concentration of the solution and the desired dosage rate. The concentration tells you how many units of medication are present per mL of solution.
In this case, the solution has a concentration of 1 unit/mL. Therefore, if you need to deliver 8 units of insulin per hour, you simply need to administer 8 mL of the solution per hour.
This direct relationship simplifies the calculation because the concentration of 1 unit/mL means that 1 mL of solution delivers 1 unit of insulin. Hence, to get 8 units, you need 8 mL of solution.
Key Points:
- Concentration: The amount of drug per volume of solution.
- Dose Required: The amount of drug needed per hour.
- Infusion Rate Calculation: Using the concentration to find out how much solution to infuse per hour to meet the required dose.
Thus, the infusion pump should be set to 8 mL/hour to deliver the prescribed 8 units of insulin per hour.