NursingABC™

Drug Dosage and Flow Rate Word Problems

The most common type of conversion problem for a health care professional will be one that involves the administration of a medication to a patient. This type of problem will usually be in one of two forms - one which requires conversion of the dosage of the drug being adminstered (Drug Dosage Problem) or one that requires conversion of the rate at which a liquid form of the drug (say an IV solution) is being administered (Flow Rate or Drip Rate Problem). Several solved examples of each of these types of problem are shown below:

Dosage Conversion Problems

1. You are to administer 2 grams of a drug to a patient. How many milligrams is this?

2. A patient is to be given 50 mg of codeine po qd (by mouth twice daily) which is available in 12.5 mg tablets. How many tablets should be administered to the patient?

3. The order of Lasix for a patient is 80 mg po qd (by mouth daily) which is to be administered by a Lasix solution which contains 10 mg/ml. How many ml of the Lasix solution should be administered to the patient?

4. A patient who weighs 180 lbs is to be given a medication which should be administered at the dosage of 2 ml per kg of patient weight. How many ml of the medication should be administered to the patient?

5. A patient is to be given 2,000 IU of Vitamin E sq qd (subcutaneous daily). The vitamin is available in vials which contain 400 IU per 2 ml vial. How many ml of the Vitamin E should be given to the patient in each dose?

6. The order of morphine for a patient is 10 mg IV q 4 hr pm (intravenous every 4 hr as needed) which is to be administered by a morphine sulfate solution which contains 4 mg/ml. A dose of the morphine sulfate solution is how many ml?

Link to next section - Drip Rate Conversion Problems