To determine the correct rate at which the infusion pump should be set, we need to calculate how many milliliters (mL) of the solution should be infused each minute to deliver 2 milliunits of Pitocin per minute.
First, we need to understand the concentration of our solution: we have 20 units of Pitocin in 1000 mL of Normal Saline. To find out how much volume contains 1 unit of Pitocin, we divide the total volume by the number of units:
[tex]\[\text{Volume per unit} = \frac{\text{Total volume}}{\text{Pitocin units}} = \frac{1000 \text{ mL}}{20 \text{ units}} = 50 \text{ mL/unit}\][/tex]
Now, we want to break down units into milliunits because our prescribed rate is in milliunits. There are 1000 milliunits in 1 unit. To find out how much volume contains 1 milliunit of Pitocin, we further divide the volume-per-unit by 1000:
[tex]\[\text{Volume per milliunit} = \frac{\text{Volume per unit}}{1000 \text{ milliunits/unit}} = \frac{50 \text{ mL/unit}}{1000 \text{ milliunits/unit}} = 0.05 \text{ mL/milliunit}\][/tex]
Given that the order is to deliver 2 milliunits per minute, we can now calculate the infusion rate:
[tex]\[\text{Infusion rate} = \text{Order rate in milliunits/min} \times \text{Volume per milliunit}\][/tex]
Substitute the numbers:
[tex]\[\text{Infusion rate} = 2 \text{ milliunits/min} \times 0.05 \text{ mL/milliunit} = 0.1 \text{ mL/min}\][/tex]
So the infusion pump should be set to 0.1 mL/min to provide the ordered dose of 2 milliunits/min of Pitocin.
