A nurse is preparing to administer lactated Ringers 125 mL/hr by continuous IV infusion. The drop factor of the manual IV tubing is 15 gtt/mL. The nurse should set the IV flow rate 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: Determine the total volume to be infused per hour: Ordered rate: 125 mL/hr Determine the drop factor of the IV tubing: Drop factor: 15 gtt/mL Calculate the total number of drops to be infused per hour: Formula: Total drops per hour (gtt/hr) = Total volume (mL/hr) × Drop factor (gtt/mL) = 125 mL/hr × 15 gtt/mL = 1875 gtt/hr Convert the flow rate to drops per minute: Conversion factor: 1 hour = 60 minutes Formula: Flow rate (gtt/min) = Total drops per hour (gtt/hr) / 60 min/hr = 1875 gtt/hr / 60 min/hr = 31.25 gtt/min Round the answer to the nearest whole number: 31.25 gtt/min rounded to the nearest whole number is 31 gtt/min.