Menu Close

How do you calculate drop factor in nursing?

How do you calculate drop factor in nursing?

To calculate the drops per minute, the drop factor is needed. The formula for calculating the IV flow rate (drip rate) is total volume (in mL) divided by time (in min), multiplied by the drop factor (in gtts/mL), which equals the IV flow rate in gtts/min.

What is the formula for drop factor?

Drop Factor = 60 drops per mL. = 83.833 ≈ 84 drops/minutes . The formula to calculate how many hours will it take for the IV to complete before it runs out is: Time (hours) = Volume (mL) Drip Rate (mL/hour) .

What is a drop factor in nursing?

Drop factor = the number of drops it takes to make up one ml of fluid. Two common sizes are: 20 drops per ml (typically for clear fluids) 15 drops per ml (typically for thicker substances, such as blood)

How many drops is 60 mL per hour?

For example, for macrodrip tubing with a drip factor of 20 gtt/mL, 20 drops is equivalent one mL. If you set the rate at 20 drops per minute, one mL is infusing per minute, or 60 mL per hour. If you double the rate to 40 drops per minute, you increase the rate to 120 mL per hour.

How do you calculate fluid drop rate?

Drip rate

  1. Number of drops infused per minute.
  2. Formula: total milliliters ÷ total minutes x drip factor in gtt/ml.
  3. Drip factor: number of drops per ml of solution that the I.V. tubing is designed to deliver.

What is GTT in drop factor?

The flow rate is calculated by the nurse in drops per minute (gtts/min). To calculate this, one must know the administration set drop factor, which is a constant. Macrodrip tubing administers a larger drop and may be used for 10 gtts/mL, 15 gtts/mL or 20 gtts/mL. Microdrip tubing administers 60 gtts/mL.

How do you calculate normal saline drop factor?

Formula application. The drop factor is commonly around 15 gtt/mL. Take note that 1 liter of normal saline is equivalent to 1,000 mL, and time should always be 60 minutes. Depending on what the physician has ordered, time should be multiplied by 60 minutes. In this case, 60 minutes will be multiplied by 8.

How do you calculate the drop factor?

The drop factor formula is, in fact, a modified version of the equation presented above: Drop factor = (Drops per minute * Time) / Volume

What unit of measurement is used in the drop factor?

– Drop factor uses the unit of gtt per minute (drops per minute). – Time must be given in minutes.

How do you calculate drops per minute?

The drops per minute would be calculated as total volume, divided by time (in minutes), multiplied by the drop factor of 60 gtts/min, which also equals 41.6, rounded to 42 drops per minute.