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How Nurses Use Math

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Submitted By desertflower
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Math might not be the first skill that comes to mind when you think about a nursing career. Math is a vital part of nursing and is used in a variety of ways throughout the average day. Nurses must obtain reliable data and calculations to prevent, diagnose and treat medical problems. A clear understanding of fractions, ratios and algebraic equations and the metric system is essential to keeping patients healthy and alive.
Vital signs -- temperature, pulse rate, breathing rate and blood pressure -- serve as our bodies’ dashboard indicators. Nurses must use math when they check a person’s vital signs. One important vital sign is body temperature. The normal body temperature for a person is about 98.6 degrees. A high temperature tells a nurse that a person has a fever. When you have a fever, it often means that your body is fighting some sort of infection or illness.
One of nurse’s most important jobs is to make sure to give the right doses of medication to the right patient. The nurse reads a patients chart, which contains the doctor’s orders, including what kind of medicine to give and how much to give. A nurse must make sure to read the name of the medication correctly as well as the strength of the medicine the doctor has ordered. This is important particularly if the conditions for determining the dose depend on the patient's weight, blood pressure or glucose level. Medication strengths can be measured in metric units, such as grams, milligrams, liters, and milliliters.
Some nurses use math while caring for pediatrics. Most newborn babies are healthy, but some may not be. The neonatal nurses give special care to these premature babies. Since they were born earlier than usual, they didn’t have as much time to develop. Some premature babies have trouble breathing, so special equipment may be needed to help them breathe. The neonatal nurse may attach leads to the

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