Care Manager Certification Practice Exam

A nurse is caring for a postoperative client prescribed D5 lactated Ringer's at a rate of 150 mL/hr. What is the correct gtt/min rate to set for the manual IV infusion?

1. 30 gtt/min

2. 40 gtt/min

3. 50 gtt/min

4. 60 gtt/min

The correct answer is: 50 gtt/min

To determine the correct gtt/min (drops per minute) rate for the manual IV infusion of D5 lactated Ringer's at a rate of 150 mL/hr, one must first understand how to convert the infusion rate from mL/hr to gtt/min using the drop factor of the IV set being used. Typically, the drop factor (gtt/mL) is determined by the IV tubing. For example, common drop factors include 10 gtt/mL, 15 gtt/mL, or 20 gtt/mL. However, since the question does not provide the drop factor, we can derive the gtt/min based on a general example where we might consider the drop factor as 20 gtt/mL: 1. Calculate the total number of mL infused per minute: - 150 mL/hr ÷ 60 minutes/hr = 2.5 mL/min. 2. Convert this to drops per minute: - 2.5 mL/min × 20 gtt/mL = 50 gtt/min. Therefore, using a common drop factor of 20 gtt/mL results in a rate of 50 gtt/min, which aligns perfectly with the choice