An IV of dextrose 5% in normal saline with oxytocin 20 units in 1,000 ml is prescribed at a rate of 2 mu/minute. How many ml/hour should the nurse program the pump?

To determine the correct infusion rate in ml/hour, it is essential to first convert the prescribed medication rate from milliunits per minute to the corresponding volume in milliliters.

In this case, the prescription states an oxytocin dose of 20 units in 1,000 ml of IV solution. Since oxytocin is being administered at a rate of 2 milliunits per minute, we first need to convert the units of oxytocin to milliunits. There are 1,000 milliunits in a single unit, which means 20 units is equal to 20,000 milliunits.

To ascertain how many minutes it will take to administer the full 20,000 milliunits at a rate of 2 milliunits per minute, we perform the following calculation:

20,000 milliunits ÷ 2 milliunits/minute = 10,000 minutes to infuse the total dose.

Next, since we want to program the pump in ml/hour, we need to convert the time from minutes to hours. There are 60 minutes in an hour, so we convert the time as follows:

10,000 minutes ÷ 60 minutes/hour = 166.67 hours.

Now, we can determine how many ml would be