Safe Medicate – How to do drug calculations the way they do…

1. Tablets and Capsules:

Prescribed Dose

How many Tabs/Caps in Dose No. of Tabs/Caps Needed

Tablet/Capsule Dose

2. Liquid Medications:

Prescribed Dose

Solution amount (ml) Amount of ml’s needed

Solution Dose

3. Injections:

Prescribed Dose

Solution Amount (ml) Amount of ml’s needed

Solution Dose

4. Intravenous Fluids:

Stage 1

Prescribed ml’s

How many ml’s per hour (ml/hr)

Hours

Stage 2

Punch in numbers to ‘IV Pump’

Stage 3

Millilitres per hour (mL/hr)

Drops per Minute (drops/min)

Drop Rate Denominator (D.R.D)

Drop Rate Denominator (D.R.D) is calculated by the giving set (blood administration set).

60 drops per ml = 1 D.R.D 30 drops per ml = 2 D.R.D

20 drops per ml = 3 D.R.D 15 drops per ml = 4 D.R.D

12 drops per ml = 5 D.R.D 10 drops per ml = 6 D.R.D

OR just remember how every many times the number fits into 60 is the D.R.D! (20 fits 3 times into 60= D.R.D of 3!

Stage 4

Roll the wheel on the IV administration set to the correct amount of drops/min, in this case it’ll be 12drops/min.

NOTE!

They like you to round the numbers up or down in the first stage on the IV Fluids part,

so If you get:

280ml ÷ 3 hours = 93.33333 ml/hr

Round it to 93 ml/hr at this stage rather than later.