Medicine. It is something we all hate but without a doubt something we all have to take at some point in our lives. However, mathematical knowledge is something you and any medical professional need to have before administering any kind of medicine.
For some medicines it is quite easy to follow the dosage intrusions, for example with paracetamol you are advised to take between 1 and 2 500mg tablets every 4 hours within a 24 hour period. This means that the maximum does of paracetamol for an adult is 8 500mg tablets in 24 hours, ensuring there is the advised 4 hour cap between (NHS Paracetamol for Adults, No Date). In order to prescribe yourself with paracetamol you must have mathematical knowledge about quantities, so how many is 2 and also a good understanding of time. To stop yourself from overdosing you will need to know how long 4 hours is, as well as figuring at what time these 4 hours will have past for you to take another does, if you require it.
For children, paracetamol dose are different to adults as the dosage changes by age and children receive their paracetamol through a liquid syrup. This image from NHS Paracetamol for Children shows the different ages and the dosage that goes with this.
Even though you receive a measuring spoon with liquid paracetamol, it is not known w
hat age the child who is going to be taking it is and so it standard to give a 5ml spoon with a 2.5ml on the other end. This mean that if you child is 8 – 10 years they will require 7.5ml, you need to know to give them a 5ml dose and then 2.5ml, straight after each other in order to make that required does of 7.5ml. Similarly, with a 10ml does you need to know to give the child two 5ml dose in order to make a 10ml. This mathematical knowledge is essential to ensure that you do not give the child an overdose and they end up in a serious condition.
When a patient is in hospital they trust the medical professionals to help them get better and so this also means that they trust that the medical professionals have sufficient mathematical knowledge to ensure they are not given an overdose or not enough medication to help them feel better.
Some of the data medical professionals have to record look a bit like this:
Now I’m not going to pretend I know what these charts mean or what they can predict purely because I’m studying to be a teacher and not a medical professional. However, what I do know is that it requires a lot of mathematical knowledge to be able to create these charts, furthermore it is essential that the medical professionals have a deep understanding of what the maths is telling them and be able to interpret this into a diagnosis such as high blood pressure.
Medical professionals often have to use a person height and weight to calculate how much of a specific medicine they can receive (Hothersall, 2016). For example, say I am in hospital and require some medication, the dosage I receive based on my height of 4ft 11 and a weight of 7 stone will be smaller a smaller dose than someone who is 6ft 10, weighing 11 stone. If I was to be given the same dose of this specific medicine as the person who is 6ft 10 weighing 11 stone, it is most likely I will become more ill than what I was originally (Hothersal, 2016).
In the future I plan to take a greater interested in administering medicine and how much mathematical knowledge it requires to do so. I have been fascinated by the variety of areas of mathematics that can be used in medicine and I would like to deepen my understanding of this.
References:
Hothersall, E (2016) Numeracy: Every contact counts (or something) [PowerPoint Presentation]. ED21006 Discovering Mathematics. Available at: https://mydundee.ac.uk (Accessed on: 13th November 2017)
NHS Paracetamol for Adults (Not Date). Available at: https://beta.nhs.uk/medicines/paracetamol-for-adults (Accessed on: 13th November 2017)
NHS Paracetamol for Children (No Date). Available at: https://beta.nhs.uk/medicines/paracetamol-for-children (Accessed on: 13th November 2017)
