A nurse is preparing to administer antibiotic X over 20 min. Available is antibiotic X in 50 mL of 0.9% sodium chloride (NSS). 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: Total volume to infuse: 50 mL Infusion time: 20 minutes Drop factor of tubing: 20 gtt/mL To find: Drip rate (gtt/min) Step 1: Calculate the total number of drops Total drops = Total volume x Drop factor Total drops = 50 mL x 20 gtt/mL = 1000 gtt Step 2: Calculate the drip rate Drip rate = Total drops / Infusion time in minutes Drip rate = 1000 gtt / 20 minutes = 50 gtt/min