What are two ways a registered nurse uses numbers or math?

Answer 1

Well lets see as a RN you need to know dosages when administering medicine to patients. If you get the dosage wrong you could kill someone. So math and numbers are very important to someone who wants to become an RN. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Calculate patients intake and output of fluids. Keep inventories of ward stock. Provide statistical returns for your employer. In epidemiological studies eg incidence of disease per 1000 of population. You use this to make forecasts so that you can plan your service provision. Calculate body mass index and calories. Calculate expected dates of delivery in pregnant women. Percentage of burns. Concentration of sterilising fluids. Calculate percentages of medical gases eg how many litres per min of oxygen do you give through a 28% oxygen mask. As the first person who answered this question said, medicine dosages have to be worked out carefully. In the UK a few years ago, a doctor meant to give a prem baby 0.1mg of morphine, but he made a mistake and gave 10mg instead, and the baby died. The sums can be complicated, so I'll give you an example: You have an ampoule containing 500mg of a drug. You have to mix it with 10ml sterile water and give 375mg over 6 hours in a drip that contains 1000ml dextrose 5%. The drip dropper drips at 30 drops per ml. So you work out how much 375mg is when drawing up the medicine in the ampoule. You discard the excess. Put the 375mg in the 10000ml dextrose. Work out how many mg of drug are in every ml of the dextrose. Work out how fast the drip has to run to give the dose in 6 hours. And there are lots more uses of maths in nursing.