Lessons · Nursing · net fluid balance
Net balance: what came in, less what went out
Net fluid balance is total intake minus total output over the period being counted. A positive number means more went in than came out; a negative number means the other way.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
The morning round asks for the twenty-four-hour balance, not the three shift totals. Adding three shifts and subtracting three shifts is the whole job, and a sign written the wrong way turns a gain into a loss on the page everyone reads.
How to think about it
Add every intake figure for the period. Add every output figure. Subtract output from intake, in that order, and keep the sign. Say it out loud as positive or negative so the sign survives onto the chart.
Worked example
Intake: 700 + 950 + 500 = 2150 mLThree shifts of intake.
Output: 800 + 900 + 650 = 2350 mLThree shifts of output.
Balance = 2150 - 2350 = -200 mLIntake less output. Negative: more came out than went in.
A chart counting 1000 mL as 1 kg: 200 mL is 0.2 kgThe conversion the unit's chart states, used to compare the balance with the scale.
Your turn
Intake 1800 mL, output 1500 mL. Write the balance line.
1800 - 1500 = mL
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Subtracting the smaller from the larger to avoid a minus sign. The order is always intake minus output, and a negative balance is a real and useful answer; flipping it to keep the number positive says the opposite of what happened.