A nurse is preparing to infuse a 250-mL unit of packed RBCs over 2 hr. The drop factor of the manual IV tubing is 15 gtts/mL. The nurse should adjust the flow rate to deliver how many drops per minute? (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: 250 mL Infusion time: 2 hours Drop factor of tubing: 15 gtt/mL To find: Drip rate (gtt/min) Step 1: Convert infusion time to minutes 2 hours x 60 minutes/hour = 120 minutes Step 2: Calculate the total number of drops Total drops = Total volume x Drop factor Total drops = 250 mL x 15 gtt/mL = 3750 gtt Step 3: Calculate the drip rate Drip rate = Total drops / Infusion time in minutes Drip rate = 3750 gtt / 120 minutes = 31.25 gtt/min Step 4: Round to the nearest whole number 31 gtt/min