A nurse is preparing to administer vancomycin 500 mg in 250 mL of dextrose 5% in water (D5W) to infuse over 2 hours. The drop factor of the manual IV tubing is 10 gtt/mL. The nurse should adjust 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.)

Step 1 is to identify the total volume to be infused and the total time in minutes Total volume = 250 mL Total time in hours = 2 hours Total time in minutes = 2 × 60 2 × 60 = 120 minutes Step 2 is to identify the drop factor Drop factor = 10 gtt/mL Step 3 is to calculate the flow rate in drops per minute (gtt/min) gtt/min = (Total volume ÷ Total minutes) × Drop factor gtt/min = (250 ÷ 120) × 10 250 ÷ 120 = 2.0833... 2.0833... × 10 = 20.833... Step 4 is to round to the nearest whole number 20.833... ≈ 21 Answer: 21