Medications may be prescribed as intravenous injections. These injections are also called intravenous pushes (IVP), or IV boluses, and may be calculated the same way as any other injection.

Besides knowing what the medication is, there are three things you must know before you administer any IVP medication:

• Amount and type of diluents
• Rate of administration
• Compatibility with the existing fluids or medications

It is impossible to remember this information for every drug you will administer because there are so many. When in doubt, look it up in an IV drug handbook. IV drug handbooks contain the information often omitted from “regular” drug handbooks, and are indispensable when administering IV pushes.

Source: Stressed Out About Drug Math, HCPro Inc., 2006. For more information on our series of Stressed Out books, visit www.stressedoutnurses.com