Medications for Fluid and Electrolyte Imbalances: In a Nutshell (Nursing)

00:00 Let's talk about what we know about IV fluids. We know that fluid in our body is 60% of the total body water inside the cell, 40% of it is outside the cell, intravascular and the interstitial spaces. Three types of tonicity of fluids; isotonic, hypertonic and hypotonic. Those are the 3 classes of crystalloid IV solutions. Remember colloids would have protein in them, these do not. Tonicity is the concentration of dissolved molecules held within the solution. All IV solutions start at sterile water and then we dissolve things in them. Hypertonic solutions have tonicity that is greater than plasma and causes fluid to shift out of the intracellular space. Remember they become really dehydrated. Hypotonic solutions have tonicity lower than plasma. This causes fluid to shift into the cells. Isotonic solutions are equal to plasma and this should not cause a fluid volume shift unless you hang too much of it and then it will start to function like a hypotonic solution. Thank you for watching our video today on IV fluids. I hope everytime you hang an IV fluid you think through the impact on your patient and which way fluid volume will shift.