Table Of ContentCarefree calculations for
healthcare students
Carefree calculations
for healthcare students
Diana Cohen
Eliza beth Atere-Roberts
--
MACMilLAN
C Diana Coben and Elizabeth Atere-Roberts 1996
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
Road, London W1P 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
First published 1996 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6:XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-0-333-61530-0 ISBN 978-1-349-13479-3 (eBook)
DOl 10.1007/978-1-349-13479-3
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
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Contents
List of tables and charts vii
Foreword ix
Preface xi
Note to the reader xiii
Introduction 1
1 Learning and you 3
1.1 Getting to know yourself as a learner 3
1.2 Developing learning strategies and study skills 4
1.3 Time and stress management 10
1.4 Calculating and estimating under pressure 14
2 Carefree calculations in the healthcare context 19
Introduction 19
2.1 Monitoring vital signs 20
2.2 Measuring weight and height 26
2.3 The fluid balance chart 32
2.4 Nutrition 36
2.5 Infant feeding 38
2.6 Giving medication 40
2.7 Budget calculations 45
2.8 Demographic profiles 48
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vi · CAREFREE CALCULATIONS FOR HEALTHCARE STUDENTS
3 Maths refreshers 54
Introduction 54
3.1 Whole numbers 55
3.2 The 'four rules' of arithmetic: addition,
subtraction, multiplication and division 58
3.3 Decimals and fractions 69
3.4 Percentages 78
3.5 Ratios 83
3.6 The metric (SI) system 85
3.7 The 24 hour clock 89
3.8 Carefree conversions 90
Answers 94
Bibliography 107
List of tables and charts
Table 1 Which number-crunching method do you
prefer? 7
Table 2 Analysing errors 8
Table 3 How do you react to any errors? 9
Table 4 Which of the following is unlikely? 10
Vital signs charts 21
Record of weight chart 28
Boys growth assessment chart 29
The fluid balance chart 34-5
Summary of 1991 Census returns for the London
Borough of Lewisham 51-3
Table 5 Metric conversion: weight 91
Table 6 Metric conversion: height 92
Vll
Foreword
When asked to write this foreword, I was struck by the title of
the book: 'Carefree calculations for healthcare students'. For
me it embodies the essence of the relationship that should exist
between healthcare workers and the mathematical skills that
are necessary for them to function efficiently and safely.
Healthcare students need to learn to perform the mathematical
tasks that they encounter in their everyday life with accuracy
and confidence. As members of a 'caring profession' they need
to be able to devote that 'care' to their patients, without being
distracted by worries associated with the arithmetic they need
to do. Healthcare workers need a wide range of of skills and
abilities at their finger tips, and mathematics - or rather, a very
small subset of the mathematical skills taught in the school
curriculum - is but one of these. To my mind, it makes little
sense automatically to exclude from the profession someone
who has all the necessary motivational, academic and
empathetic attributes and lacks only a facility in certain areas
of arithmetic. On the other hand, one cannot get away from
the fact that accurate mathematical calculation can be vital, in
the true meaning of that word. Erroneous calculation of drug
doses could be fatal. Research undertaken a few years ago
(Pirie, 1987) demonstrated that such mathematical deficiency
could, however, be remedied during a nurse's training and that
what those entering the healthcare profession need, therefore,
is a way to assess their mathematical skills to a safe, competent
level. 'Carefree' must not be confused with 'careless'.
In today's climate, health workers are faced with ever
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X • CAREFREE CALCULATIONS FOR HEALTHCARE STUDENTS
expanding responsibility for areas outside their direct sphere of
contact with patients. It has become increasingly necessary for
them to be able to interpret the data and results reported in
medical research and to develop the skills of managing their
own budgets. All of this can raise the level of maths anxiety
that so many people seem to possess, and come between the
nurse and the care owed to the patient. Indeed the more
anxious the nurse, the harder it becomes to calculate calmly
and accurately. This book addresses this problem head on.
Readers are asked to assess their own fears as well as their
calculating abilities. They are shown ways to understand how
they best learn and then build on their strengths to the point
where mathematics no longer causes that low trembling of
panic. Individuals are reassured that they are not alone with
their worries, but that they cannot shrug off the responsibility
for their own learning ..
I wish wholeheartedly to endorse the authors' sentiments
when they say that healthcare workers owe it to themselves
and their patients to be 'competent, confident and
comfortable' in all the aspects of mathematics that impinge on
their professional lives.
Dr Susan Pirie
September 1995
Preface
This book is the result of a collaboration: we hope it reflects
the complementary insights and experience we bring from our
respective backgrounds in teaching and research on adult
learning of mathematics (Diana Cohen) and nursing and
healthcare education (Elizabeth Atere-Roberts) and above all
that it is useful to those for whom it was written - healthcare
students.
We wish to acknowledge the other collaborations which
have made essential contributions to the book, especially that
with Joan O'Hagan of Fircroft College, Birmingham, with
whom the book was conceived. Dr Susan Pirie of the Mathe
matics Education Research Centre, University of Oxford, gave
generously of her time and insights from her pioneering
research in this area at the outset of the project. Gillian
Thumpston's and Diana Cohen's ongoing research on adults'
mathematics life histories (Thumpston & Cohen, 1995) in
formed much of the thinking behind this book, especially the
chapter entitled 'Learning and You'.
We are grateful to Kerry Lawrence, Margaret O'Gorman,
Frances Arnold and Richenda Milton-Thompson of Macmillan
for their vision and commitment to a maths book with a
difference.
Our thanks especially to the friends, colleagues and
anonymous healthcare students who read drafts of the book
and whose detailed comments were very helpful indeed. In
particular, our thanks to the following: Sandy Black of the
University of Brighton; Ruth Hudson of the Health Visitors'
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