A nurse is caring for client who is postoperative following an appendectomy and prescribed Ds lactated Ringer's at 150 mL/hr continuous IV infusion for 12 hr. The drop factor of the manual IV tubing is 20 gtt/mL. The nurse should set the manual IV infusion to deliver how many gtt/min? (Round the answer to the nearest whole number Use a leading zero if it applies. Do not use a trailing zero.)

Given: Infusion rate: 150 mL/hr Drop factor of tubing: 20 gtt/mL To find: Drip rate (gtt/min) Step 1: Convert the infusion rate from mL/hr to mL/min Infusion rate (mL/min) = Infusion rate (mL/hr) / 60 minutes/hr Infusion rate (mL/min) = 150 mL/hr / 60 minutes/hr = 2.5 mL/min Step 2: Calculate the drip rate Drip rate (gtt/min) = Infusion rate (mL/min) x Drop factor Drip rate (gtt/min) = 2.5 mL/min x 20 gtt/mL = 50 gtt/min