Nurses use math.
Jobs that require calculations everyday can be a little intimidating. Work can be difficult enough, but having to also do calculations accurately on the fly can lead to errors and stress. The job of nursing involves caring for patients and knowing diseases and medicine. However, there can be times that a little bit of math is necessary.
Medicine Based in Math
Medicine can be thought of as an applied use of the study of biology. Since it is based on a general science, it has a large basis in math. Any scientific field that uses math and medicine is no different.
Nurses Use Math
Nurses and anyone else who works in the medical field need at least a basic knowledge of math and to know convert units. Without a working knowledge of math, they wouldn't be able to figure out how much medicine to give someone with a specific body weight.
Body Weight
The types of math nurses use include basic algebra, mostly to figure out how much medicine to give someone. For example, the amount of milliliters needed for a patient who weighs 250 pounds and needs 1 milliter of medicine per 15 pounds can be determined by dividing 250 by 15 (16.67 milliliters).
Unit Conversions
Nurses also do basic unit conversions. If a patient's weight is known only in pounds then a nurse might have to convert that weight to metric to deal with the medicine that is also in metric. Pounds to killigrams is a conversion that allows a nurse to work with medicine prescribed in milligrams.
Machines
The most important way that math is used in the medical industry is when new technology is developed. For example, the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine uses a great deal math in its development as well as application. This is not something that nurses generally do, but since they have to work with this equipment regularly, they have to have a general familiarity with the math involved.
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