Doctors and nurses use math when they write prescriptions or administer medication. Medical professionals use math when drawing up statistical graphs of epidemics or success rates of treatments. Math applies to x-rays and CAT scans. Numbers provide an abundance of information for medical professionals.
Regularly, doctors write prescriptions to their patients for various ailments. Prescriptions indicate a specific medication and dosage amount. Most medications have guidelines for dosage amounts in milligrams (mg) per kilogram (kg). Doctors need to figure out how many milligrams of medication each patient will need, depending on their weight. If the weight of a patient is only known in pounds, doctors need to convert that measurement to kilograms and then find the amount of milligrams for the prescription. Doctors who prescribe prescriptions to patients use milligrams per kilograms. The amount of medicine that a doctor prescribes will depend on the weight of the patient. A person’s weight is often known only in pounds; therefore it is up to the doctor to convert the weight of the patient from pounds to kilograms, and then determine the number of milligrams she/he should prescribe the patient.
Doctors must also consider how long the medicine will stay in the patient’s body. This will determine how often the patient needs to take their medication in order to keep a sufficient amount of the medicine in the body.
Nurses also use ratios and proportions when administering medication. Nurses need to know how much medicine a patient needs depending on their weight. Nurses need to be able to understand the doctor’s orders.
Statistics are used in the health field all the time. One example of how statistics are used is with disease reporting. If doctors are speaking to other doctors, a patient or the family of a patient about performing a surgery, the doctor brings up all the statistics of prior surgeries, as well as the patients who had the surgery done to them. These statistics describe the outcomes of the surgery, both good and bad, or the side effects that can occur, or what condition the patient was in prior to having the surgery.
Dimensions are a form of math that is used in the health care profession. When doctors read X-rays, they use three-dimensional calculations as well two-dimensional X-rays. This allows doctors to see inside body organs, such as the brain. X-ray machines allow the view to be seen inside and all around the body, which helps doctors to see the problem. If they do not know how to read dimensions, both 2-D and 3-D, they will not be able to read the X-ray or CAT scan.
