If a client is prescribed 1 L of intravenous fluid to be infused over 8 hours, how many drops per minute should the nurse set if the drop factor is 15 drops/mL?

To determine how many drops per minute the nurse should set the infusion of 1 L of intravenous fluid over 8 hours with a drop factor of 15 drops/mL, the following calculation can be employed:

First, convert the total volume of fluid from liters to milliliters. Since 1 L is equivalent to 1000 mL, that's the volume we need to infuse.

Next, calculate how many minutes are in 8 hours. There are 60 minutes in an hour, so multiplying 60 minutes by 8 hours gives us 480 minutes total for the infusion.

Now, we can calculate the infusion rate in mL per minute:

[

\text{mL per minute} = \frac{1000 \text{ mL}}{480 \text{ minutes}} \approx 2.08 \text{ mL/minute}

]

Then, to find out how many drops this corresponds to, we can multiply the mL per minute by the drop factor:

[

\text{drops per minute} = 2.08 \text{ mL/minute} \times 15 \text{ drops/mL} \approx 31.2 \text{ drops/minute}

\