A nurse is preparing to administer 0.9% sodium chloride (NSS) 3000 mL IV to infuse over 24 hr. The drop factor on the manual IV tubing is 10 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.)

Calculation: Convert the total infusion time from hours to minutes. Total time (min) = 24 hours x 60 minutes/hour = 1440 minutes. Calculate the infusion rate in drops per minute (gtt/min). Total volume: 3000 mL Drop factor: 10 gtt/mL Total time: 1440 min Infusion rate (gtt/min) = (Total volume (mL) x Drop factor (gtt/mL)) / Total time (min) = (3000 mL x 10 gtt/mL) / 1440 min = 30,000 drops / 1440 min = 20.833... gtt/min. Round to the nearest whole number. = 21 The final answer is 21 gtt/min.