The physician orders an IV infusion of D5W 1000 ml to infuse over the next eight hours. The IV tubing that you are using delivers 10 gtt/ml. What is the correct rate of flow (drops per minute) ? _gtt/min (rounded to the nearest drop)

Answer: 10gtt/ml means that in 10 drops there is a ml of the solution.

Now, you need 1000ml in 8 hours, and want to know the correct rate of flow in drops per minute.

first, 8 hours are 8*60 = 480 minutes.

then you need to infuse 1000ml in 480 minutes, so if you infuse at a constant rate, you need to infuse 1000/480 = 2.083 ml/min.

And we know that 10 drops are equivalent to 1 ml, then 2.083*10 = 20.8 drops are equivalent a 2.083 ml, rounding it up, you get 21 drops for the dose.

So the correct rate of flow will be 21 drops per minute.