Recently we had a lecture from Dr Hothersall a Consultant in Public Health with NHS Tayside. This a lecture I found really interesting because I was able to clearly relate to where maths is used for genuine purposes.
When a relative is in hospital you have faith that they are being cared for by doctors and nurses but until Dr Hothersall’s lecture I never thought about the application of maths in the health profession. One important role of maths in health care that Dr Hothersall discussed was the calculation of drug does. Some basic maths principles used to calculate drug does are conversion, mass, volume, calculation.
I decided to look further into the application of maths in health care following this lecture.
‘The impact of poorly developed numeracy skills at work could mean that employees:
are unable to estimate quantities, costs and timings;
cannot make quick mental calculations and lack the confidence to do routine calculations, even with the use of a calculator;
don’t always take accurate measurements or readings and are unable to spot errors;
make mistakes when recording numerical data and have difficulty interpreting information displayed in the form of graphs or charts;
have difficulty reading the time or understanding timetables, leading to poor time management
All of the above will have implications for the care of a patient which highlights just how vital the role of maths has in a nurses job.
Something that really interested me was that taking an x-ray involves the application of maths
Radiographers need to use maths to determine the correct exposure time to to create the x-ray image. Factors which need to be considered are:
Size of the patient
Thickness of of the area being X-rayed
Disease which may affect the image.
Power of the machine being used.
The radiographer measures the section to be X-rayed and set controls on the machine to produce radiographs of the appropriate density, detail and contrast.
The standard formula is that the total amount of X-rays must increase by a factor of two for every five centimeters of body thickness to maintain the right contrast.
Although too little exposure will result in an image not bright enough for diagnosis, too much exposure is potentially dangerous for the patient.
Therefore X-rays rely on the radiographer being skilled in maths to be able to calculate precisely the right amount and length of exposure.
References
http://www.achieve.org/files/MathAtWork-Health.pdf
http://shop.niace.org.uk/media/catalog/product/m/a/maths-in-the-workplace.pdf
www.achieve.org/files/MathAtWork-Health.pdf
