Question

The physician ordered Dilaudid, 0.4 mg/kg/day, in equally divided doses every three hours to your patient who weighs 132 pounds. How many milligrams of Dilaudid will the nurse administer on the 12-hour shift?

Answer 1

Prescribed Dosage = 0.4 mg/kg/day

Patient weight = 132 pounds

Dilaudid dose in milligram during 12-hour shift = ?

Calculation: We have to find the dosage in 12 hours shift

First we convert the patient weight in kilograms from pounds = 132 X 0.4535 = 58.862

Now we calculate the dosage of Dilaudid to the patient for his weight = 58.862 X 0.4 = 23.544 mg/ day

Now we know that the patient requires 23.544 mg/ day. Therefore we must find the per hour dose feom available per day dose:

1 day = 24 hours, For 1 hour dose we divide the dosage per day by 24 hours to get per 1 hour dosage = 23.544 / 24 = 0.981 mg/ hour

The patient has to be given the Dilaudid dose every 3 hours = 0.981 mg X 3 = 2.943 mg every 3 hours

Now we kow the nurse has a 12 hour shift, so in 12 hours the nurse can give the dosage 4 times ( We divide 12 hour duration in 3 hours space by dividing). Therefore the nurse have to give every 3 hour dose 4 times to the patient:

Dilaudid dose in milligram during 12-hour shift = 2.943 mg X 4 = 11.772 mg

Therefore during the 12 hours shift of the nurse we have to adminsiter 11.772 mg of Dilaudid drug to the patient from prescribed sosage of 0.4 mg/kg/day