¶ … Math in the Medical Field
The use of math in medicine: Calculating patients' weights
Almost everyone has walked into a drug store and bought an over-the-counter medication and taken a dosage based upon the recommended dose on the label. While these generic guidelines may be acceptable for some types of medication, this is not true for all drugs. The dosage of many medications is dependent upon the weight of the patient. Doctors must use math to calculate appropriate dosages based upon the patient's needs. "Most medications have guidelines for dosage amounts in milligrams (mg) per kilogram (kg). Doctors need to figure out how many milligrams of medication each patient will need, depending on their [patient's] weight" (Glydon 2012). Because weight is often kept track of as pounds in the U.S., doctors must also be able to convert kilograms into pounds. And nurses must likewise understand such calculations to fulfill doctor's orders: "Such an order may be given as: 25 mcg/kg/min. If the patient weighs 52kg, how many milligrams...
If a patient takes a drug every morning, the dosage from the day before may still be lingering within his or her body, and the doctor must take that into consideration when writing the prescription. Of course, this is not a concern when administering singular drug treatments like anesthesia, although the amount of anesthesia given is very weight-dependent.
The need for a patient to maintain a healthy weight and body fat percentage is also a critical component of providing effective treatment. Excessive weight is linked to a variety of different ailments, including diabetes and heart disease. In years past, weight was often calculated purely in terms of pounds. But this fails to take into consideration the height of the…
