How to Write Intravenous Rates

Nurses frequently record the details of intravenous fluid administration, whether they are taking a telephone order from a doctor, writing in narrative nursing notes, arranging for a transfer to another unit or giving a condition report to the next shift's staff. Despite the technological leaps of programmable IV pumps, the overall procedure for writing and reporting intravenous rates remains the same as when IV fluids were routinely hung in bottles.

Things You'll Need

• Doctor's orders

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Instructions

• 1

  Write the name or type of the fluid to be administered: D5W (5 percent dextrose plus water), NS (normal saline) or RL (Ringer's lactate), for example.

  If common electrolytes are to be included in the therapy, their name and amount is included in the overall name. For instance, potassium chloride, chemically abbreviated as KCl, is frequently supplemented and in administered in milliequivalents.

  Thus, the first part of your text might read "D5W + 20mEq KCl..."

• 2

  Write the rate that the fluid is to be administered. Intravenous fluids are measured in milliliters (ml) or cubic centimeters (cc); both are identical and used interchangeably. The infusion rate is typically the volume of fluid to be administered over an hour's time. Thus, if your order indicated that the IV was to run at 75cc per hour, your text would now read "D5W + 20mEq KCl @ 75cc/h."

• 3

  If provided by the order, write the total amount to be administered. An example might be for an order that calls for one liter only to be infused. Your written order would then read "D5W + 20mEq KCl @ 75cc/h x 1 L. This type of order is infrequent. More commonly, the intravenous order is continued until the IV rate is increased in cc's per hour, decreased, or discontinued altogether.