How much math is used by a registered nurse on a daily basis?

Answer 1

Doctors use math, just like they use a language. They must know a person's age, height, and weight to prescribe a drug. This can help the patient take the correct amount of dosage. So most commonly doctors use math to determine appropriate dosage of medications, because drugs are effective at certain levels, depending on weight. They need to know percentage really well, just to determine how much of something to give, administer, to some one who is 130 pounds versus someone who is 300 pounds. Blood type is needed to know, and the compositions of the blood is needed to know, because if you are low on blood there is a certain amount of blood a person body requires depending on their age and weight.
Yes. They use it in lots of ways, like weighing patients, working out how much medication to prescribe, counting the various things like blood pressure and comparing them against healthy levels. They work out their bills, as many are running their own business.

Answer 2

Mathematics is also used in many other areas of medicine. For instance, Professors L. Bass and A. Bracken, of the Mathematics Department and Professor S. Pond of the Department of Medicine are collaborating in research about the liver.

For some cancers, especially if they are diagnosed at a late stage, it might be appropriate to focus on t=3, or t=6, whereas for many cancers such as breast and cervix it is more usual to quote 5 year survival rates (t=60).

Calculating these estimates for all the different cancers is extremely challenging, but it can be done by carefully and systematically collecting data on patients and their outcomes. These data require complex statistical modelling, but the understanding generated can be very useful in advising patients, and choosing treatments appropriate for their individual circumstances.

The final column of the Table shows the number of people expected to die at each age, and we can use this to calculate the average length of life, or life expectancy.

Start by assuming (unrealistically) that everyone dies on their birthday. Then out of 100,000 females born, 455 will live 0 years, 38 will live 1 year, 19 will live 2 years, etc, and so the average length of life is

Now it would be more realistic to assume that on average people die half-way between their birthdays, and so we should add 6 months onto this figure to get 81.3 years. This is only approximate and more accurate methods can be used.

The table below shows the average number of years patients survive after diagnosis for each of the three drugs. It also shows how much each drug costs per patient per year.

It's your job to decide which of the three drugs patients should be given this year. Your budget for this year is £1,000,000, which you must not exceed, and there are currently 2150 patients that need to be treated. Which drug would you choose to maximise the average survival time while still remaining within budget?

Drug A

Drug B

Drug C

Average survival time in years

2.8

3.5

4.2

Cost per patient per year

£350

£400

£470

Just as you are going to communicate your decision to doctors, some new research results are published. It turns out that the three drugs affect men and women differently. The differences are shown in the table below. Out of the 2150 patients 800 are men and 1350 are women. Work out which combination of drugs (drug X for men and drug Y for women) gives the greatest average survival time calculated over all patients. Can you use this to come up with a final choice of drug for both groups? What other considerations might you make when allocating the drugs?

Men (800)

Women (1350)

Drug A

Drug B

Drug C

Average survival time in years

3.9

3.5

4.0

Cost per patient per year

£350

£400

£470

Drug A

Drug B

Drug C

Average survival time in years

2.1

3.5

4.3

Cost per patient per year

£350

£400

£470

The growth of an aneurysm can be modelled mathematically. Dr Hart and Dr Shi in the Mathematics Department at the University of Queensland are doing just this. The aneurysm is modelled as a thin hemispherical bubble and the artificial artery as a cylinder as shown in the diagram above.

The tension, T, in the tissue that forms the bubble can be calculated using the equation T - pr/2, where p is the pressure of the blood and r the radius of the bubble. If the pressure, p increases so does the radius r. So that the tension, T, experiences a compound effect, which may cause the bubble to burst. Mathematical detail of this sort can give doctors an estimate of the risks from hypertension for patients with aneurysms.

If there is too much sweating an overdose can be dangerous. The maximum safe dose depends on the area of the skin. If the subject of the treatment is a child, then it is all too easy to give the wrong dose. The following method is used to find the rough area of a child, and indeed, also works for an adult.

A clinic will easily obtain measurements of a child's height in metres, and weight in kilogrammes. The shape of a human is complicated, but is assumed to be common to all, except that the similarity ratio might be different in the horizontal and vertical directions. In common terms, some humans are fatter than others. Imagine that an overfed child looks the same it would, were its thin version to be made of rubber such that, when blown up by a pump, only the horizontal dimensions were enlarged. Let Fdenote the fatness of a child, in metres, and let H be its height. Then its volume will be V = KF(FH), where Kis a constant, the same for all humans. Its area is A = CFH, where C is another constant. We do not know F, V, K, or C, and we wish to find A in square metres. At this point, we make an approximation; the density d of all humans is the same. This is not bad...we observe that while swimming, the relative bouyancy of all children seems to be the same as for adults. Thus the known parameter, the mass M, is given by M = Vd = dKF(FH). This gives us a formula for the fatness:

F = [M/(dKH)]1/2

From this we find the area of the child:

A = CFH = C[MH]1/2[1/(dK)]1/2

.

Although this answer has three unknown constants in it, they are all multiplied together, and so there is only one parameter. This can be found once and for all. The method becomes very practical when we take logarithms:

log A = constant + 1/2[log M + log H]...................(*)

The handbook for the paediatrician has a page in three columns; as its left-column, it shows the heights in metres, on a log scale, and as its right column, the weights in kilos, also on the same log scale. The centre column shows the area in square metres, on the same log scale. The medic finds the height and weight from the records, and places a ruler with its left end on the log height, and its right end on the log weight. Where this crosses the central axis is therefore 1/2[logH + log M], so its area in square metres can be read off from the log scale in the central column, provided that the constant in (*) has been found once and for all. This then gives, not the required dose, but the maximum safe dose, if the drug has been calibrated in terms of the safe area.

Answer 3

It depends what kind of nursing. It is pretty much used in all nursing.

Answer 4

measuring, weighing, counting, telling time, feeding measuring, weighing, counting, telling time, feeding

Answer 5

They use math to calculate drug dosages according to weight and such.

Answer 6

Math is used several times every day by most nurses. It is used for IV rates and drug dosage calculations.

Answer 7

you do stuff you do stuff