A client who weighs 65 kg receives a prescription for lorazepam 44 mcg/kg IV to be administered 20 minutes before a scheduled procedure. The medication is available as "Lorazepam 2 mg/ml vial". How many mL should the nurse administer? (Enter numerical value only. If rounding is required, round to the nearest tenth.)

To calculate the dosage of lorazepam for the client, first determine the total micrograms required by multiplying the client's weight in kilograms by the prescribed amount per kilogram. For a client weighing 65 kg prescribed 44 mcg/kg, the total dosage would be 65 kg x 44 mcg/kg, which equals 2860 mcg. Since the medication is available in a concentration of 2 mg/ml, convert the total dosage from micrograms to milligrams by dividing by 1000 (because there are 1000 micrograms in a milligram). This results in 2.86 mg. Finally, to find out how many milliliters to administer, divide the total milligrams needed by the concentration of the vial, which is 2 mg/ml. Therefore, 2.86 mg / 2 mg/ml equals 1.43 ml. When rounding to the nearest tenth, the nurse should administer 1.4 ml of lorazepam.