A nurse is preparing to administer Ringer's lactate 500 mL IV bolus to infuse over 3 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.)

Calculation: Total volume = 500 mL. Infusion time = 3 hours = 3 hours x 60 minutes/hour = 180 minutes. Drop factor = 20 gtt/mL. Calculate the infusion rate in drops per minute (gtt/min). Infusion rate (gtt/min) = (Total volume (mL) x Drop factor (gtt/mL)) / Total time (min) = (500 mL x 20 gtt/mL) / 180 min = 10,000 gtt / 180 min = 55.555... gtt/min. Round to the nearest whole number. = 56 gtt/min.