A nurse is preparing to administer 1.000 mL of lactated Ringer's IV over 6 hr. The drop factor of the manual IV tubing is 10 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.)

To calculate the drip rate for a manual IV infusion, the formula used is: drip rate (gtt/min) = [volume (mL) ÷ time (min)] × drop factor (gtt/mL). The ordered volume is 1,000 mL to be infused over 6 hours. First, convert 6 hours to minutes: 6 × 60 = 360 minutes. Next, calculate the flow rate in mL/min: 1,000 ÷ 360 = 2.778 mL/min. Then multiply by the drop factor of 10 gtt/mL: 2.778 × 10 = 27.78 gtt/min. Rounding to the nearest whole number gives 28 gtt/min. A common error students make is forgetting to convert hours to minutes before dividing, which yields a much larger and incorrect number. Another mistake is using the wrong drop factor; always confirm whether the tubing is macrodrip (10, 15, or 20 gtt/mL) or microdrip (60 gtt/mL), as this significantly changes the result. In this problem the drop factor of 10 gtt/mL indicates macrodrip tubing. The keyed answer of 28 gtt/min is confirmed correct by this calculation.