Answer :
Final answer:
To prepare the prescribed IV solution, the nurse should add 7.5 ml of potassium chloride to the 1000 ml IV bag of D5W to achieve the desired concentration of 15 meq of potassium chloride for infusion at the rate of 2 meq/hr.
Explanation:
The student is asking how much KCl (potassium chloride) a nurse should add to an IV bag to achieve a specified infusion rate. The solution available is potassium chloride 40 meq per 20 ml (which is 2 meq per ml), and the nurse needs to add enough to make a 1000 ml IV of D5W (dextrose 5% in water) with a total of 15 meq of potassium chloride, to be infused at a rate of 2 meq/hr. To compute:
- Determine the concentration of the available KCl solution: 2 meq/ml.
- Calculate the amount of KCl to be added: this is 15 meq required. At 2 meq/ml, this equates to 7.5 ml of KCl.
The nurse should draw up 7.5 ml of the stock solution of KCl using a syringe and add it to the 1000 ml IV bag of D5W to attain the prescribed 15 meq of KCl concentration for the patient.
