nurses...how much Math do you need to know??

[kacaju]

Just wondering...my dd17 a Junior in HS says she wants to be a nurse. She hates Math though. She does OK in Math class, but really does not like it and it does stress her. I don't want to kill her dream to be a nurse if that's what she really wants, though I also don't want to see her fail because she is being stubborn and has this I don't NEED Math attitude.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Most Nurses need to get a minimum grade in Chemistry. This can be managed best by someone who dislikes Math by taking these classes separately at a community college, as in one class per semester. If she hates the subject trying to manage a heavy course load AND the Math could totally derail her.

Good luck

 

[cepmom]

not a nurse, but DD is a nursing student and she does need to have a good understanding of math in order to give correct dosages of meds etc. What kind of math is your DD taking that she hates?

 

[Christine]

I'd be interested in hearing this.

My DD (who is in college right now) has expressed interest in nursing.

She is *horrible* in math, struggled awfully in high school, and has not done well with her college math course.

When we looked up some of the nursing curriculums at our 4 year state schools, they were very heavy in the math and science courses. It pretty much has soured her on pursuing that career because she could not get the required GPA with those types of courses.

Then again, when we look at the community college path, it is much lighter in math. Then it feeds to a 4 year program so it looks like you can pretty much skip all that but I just don't know.

 

[dumboiu]

not a nurse, but DD is a nursing student and she does need to have a good understanding of math in order to give correct dosages of meds etc. What kind of math is your DD taking that she hates?

Thank you! Nurses need to have decent math skills so that they can administer medications CORRECTLY!

 

[mhsjax]

I know several nurses and they all hate math. Doesn't mean they aren't good at it, but they hate it. I actually know one that says she always has a fellow nurse or calls the pharmacy to double check her.

 

[design_mom]

My SIL is a nurse. She *hates* math. There were some math classes required. I tutored her in math when she was in nursing school.

She's 35 now and still *hates* math -- she cannot double a recipe, nor figure out how much change is due at the store -- but she's been a nurse for over 10 years and seems to do fine at it. She's in a mother/infant unit at a hospital and I think she has to do quite a bit of measuring, but not a lot of calculating.

 

[golfgal]

She will need to know enough to get through a college level chemistry class. I just checked the course list for the nursing program at my alma matter, one of the top nursing schools in our state, and they require a probabilities and statistics course for nursing majors for an actual math class plus the math required for the science courses. It isn't an overload of math but enough. If she takes 4 years of high school math and does ok she should be fine. The biggest thing growing up in the US is getting a REALLY good understanding of the metric system since medications are dosed that way.

 

[dumboiu]

I know several nurses and they all hate math. Doesn't mean they aren't good at it, but they hate it. I actually know one that says she always has a fellow nurse or calls the pharmacy to double check her.

While that is very responsible of her, you would think that she would get comfortable with the repetition of the limited amount of math needed to dose meds.

 

[mhsjax]

While that is very responsible of her, you would think that she would get comfortable with the repetition of the limited amount of math needed to dose meds.

She may do that now. I have lost touch with her, but she did this in the beginning. I should have stated that. Hey only one cup of coffee down. I don't have all of my fact correct. lol

 

[cepmom]

I'd be interested in hearing this.

My DD (who is in college right now) has expressed interest in nursing.

She is *horrible* in math, struggled awfully in high school, and has not done well with her college math course.

When we looked up some of the nursing curriculums at our 4 year state schools, they were very heavy in the math and science courses. It pretty much has soured her on pursuing that career because she could not get the required GPA with those types of courses.

Then again, when we look at the community college path, it is much lighter in math. Then it feeds to a 4 year program so it looks like you can pretty much skip all that but I just don't know.

I would guess that any nursing program is going to be science and math heavy even with a community college. I know at the cc I go to,their nursing program requirements are biology,human A&P 1 and 2, microbiology, chemistry, math (algebra or higher) among other specific nursing classes. Pharmacology (I think that's the one)would for sure be one of the requirements which is math heavy

 

[Cindy B]

Don't know if it will help, but Barnes and Noble is offering a FREE downloadable Ebook called Math for Nurses - Kaplan Publishing.

Since its free, it is worth downloading. Now, if you don't have a nook you can read the book on a PC/laptop, phone, Ipad/Ipod and *maybe* another ereader -- but not a Kindle.

Here's the link.. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Math-for-Nurses/Kaplan/e/9781607140269/?itm=1&USRI=math+for+nurses

I'm not a nurse, but I was searching up free titles and this book came up.

 

[tzolkin]

She's 35 now and still *hates* math -- she cannot double a recipe, nor figure out how much change is due at the store -- but she's been a nurse for over 10 years and seems to do fine at it.

This is funny.

I was thinking about going to nursing school and met with the director to see what classes I could skip. (I have a liberal arts BA from a top school and took multiple years of IB/AP Chemistry and Calculus in HS.) Although the college would accept my credits from HS, this woman said it was up to her if she would count them for the nursing program because they had been 10 years ago. She then asked me, "Can you double a recipe?" "Yes" "Can you make change?" "Yes". "Okay, well then you can probably skip the required math classes." Gee, if I would have known all the math skills I needed were knowing how to bake, I wouldn't have bothered with all those classes I hated.


Honestly, DH is a nurse and I think he just took a basic math course. He did have to use some math for some of his nursing courses (to figure out medication dosages, etc.), but it was very do-able (and he didn't even get as far as algebra in HS). When he went back to get his Bachelor's in nursing, the only further math he did was a statistics class.

If your DD really wants to be a nurse and does okay in math, she can definitely do it if she's willing to put in the work and study a bit until she gets it.

 

[Yogamama]

I'm in the newborn ICU and use math every day. Even when I worked in less intense areas of nursing, I still used alot of math. You need to ask her what her goal is and how she plans on getting there. I don't LIKE math, just in the same ways that I don't LIKE when bad things happen to babies, but I DO it because it's only one part of my job. All of the other awesome things outweigh something that I don't like.

I will say this - she can get tutoring and learn to UNDERSTAND the parts of math that she'll need to know.

Good luck to her! Don't let her get discouraged, all of the math that I need to know, I had to take some time to become familiar with.

 

[MagicalMom]

I always tell nursing students.....1 wrong math problem could take a patients life. Math in nursing is very important!

 

[mhsjax]

I always tell nursing students.....1 wrong math problem could take a patients life. Math in nursing is very important!

And this is why I could never be a nurse. I am not bad at math, but knowing this fact would literally give me ulcers and I would worry everyday after a shift if I had accidentally done a calculation wrong and kill or hurt someone.

 

[Bacon Bits]

I've been an Emergency Room Nurse for more years than I care to tell. Med math is a skill, that if you don't use it regularly, you lose it. In all the work places, I've practiced, there are always charts/formulas/"cheat sheets" for drug calculations nearby and available.

I've grown so accustomed to referring to these "charts" that my med math skills are very rusty. So it's my responsibility to "brush-up" on Med Math and sometimes....re-learn it all over again.

Also, during every pre-employment interview there is a Pharmacological pre test, and (you guessed it!) a med math section in it.

Everyone hates the math, but it's a necessary "evil". More importantly is the med itself! You have to as a Nurse keep up with the "new and improved" drugs, their trade names, generic names and a host of a lot more things about the drug before you should agree to administer it to a patient.

So I guess to answer the main topic question, you have to know enough math to do your job and do it safely. If you can't/wouldn't do this I suggest you look into another profession.

BTW, I am also a EMS Paramedic and Instructor in my state. ( And I so do hate math!)

 

[npierce25]

math in nursing is very important.... but it is basic math. I am an RN, just graduated in June, passed boards on the 1st try in aug.....

if she can do this she will be fine, it is how you calucate your dosages:

desired/have x the drug form......

like

like the order is for 650mg of tylonol

it comes in 325 mg tabs (1 tab)

650/325= 2, so 2 tabs....


or 10 mg per ml of torodol

the order is for 5mg of torodol

5mg/10mg =.5 x 1ml =.5 ml....

hope this helps!!!!

the pharm and a&p stuff is harder than any of the math.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

She does OK in Math class

Then she will probably be ok.

Math wasn't one of my stonger subjects, but I did ok with it in high school and nursing school (BSN program). A lot of people had trouble with statistics, but I was fortunate to have a great instructor who helped make it understandable. Much of the work a nurse will do on the job is algebra based.

I've worked in acute care for a quarter century. I'm trying to think of how to explain this. Much of what a professional nurse does is critical thinking. Great math skills aren't essential (and just to clarify, good math skills definitely are), but education and critical thinking skills are. The reality today is that most medication administration systems are electronically based and are designed to prevent errors. Errors still can and do happen, but generally they aren't because the nurse couldn't do math, it's because he or she wasn't thinking critically and performing the checks and balances that are part of policy and standard in any medication administration (and often don't include using math).

Years ago I remember a bunch of us standing around trying to figure out complex math problems for drip dosages in the middle of the night. We of course were ultimately going to check our answers with the pharmacist on duty, but didn't want to embarrass ourselves having a ridiculous answer to start. (In fact, we were all blown away with a newly graduated nurse who came by, took one look at the problem, whipped out her calculator, saying, "Oh, Physics!" and immediately and simply got the correct answer. ) At least where I work, that really doesn't happen anymore (though I'm sure it could in less advanced facilities). Exact dosages are figured out by physicians using advanced software and checks and balances are performed by pharmacists before a medication is even approved for usage or a nurse can obtain it from [computerized] medication administration vestibules. A medication or vial or bag of medication then has to be scanned into a computerized medication system for administration and the patient's ID band has to be scanned as well to make sure the right medication is going to the right patient. Additionally, if it's a drip, pumps are programmed with libraries that you must enter the drug information from the bag into. You have to enter the right info on the bag and the pump will not work if the information entered is incorrect or out of the range that has been programmed for the drugs that that particular facility and unit have approved for safe use. Errors can still occur, but it's generally not because a nurse has done the math incorrectly. There are times that a medication (pill) has to be cut or that you do have to do some simple math before administering a liquid but again, the electronic system has built in prompts that tell you the medication scanned is too much and you need to enter the actual dose you are administering, etc.

All nurses, however, have to always be asking themselves, "Does this make sense?". I had it happen recently myself. A drip rate being administered by the pump when I came on shift wasn't making sense to me. I performed the check and balance at the beginning of my shift and it checked out ok. But it still wasn't making sense. So I double checked it again. Turns out the wrong information from the bag was entered into the pump. It was still in the safe range of administration (and the patient wasn't harmed) but I found the problem as a result of my critical thinking skills. Our patients always need us to do this for them. These types of things aren't uncommon just about everywhere, and with all of the health professionals on the care team, not just nurses.

As for school, the challenges I found weren't math, they were more the sciences - anatomy and physiology (which wasn't hard, persay, but there is a lot of study and memorization involved, not to mention our dissecting frozen cats ), pathophysiology, organic chemistry, medical microbiology, and nursing classes which included the nursing care for all body and family, community systems, leadership, etc, and involved a TON of paper writing, some of which were 50 pages long. Those were tough but I loved it and never regretted for one minute becoming a nurse. (Wait, I take that back. I did have one job in which the hospital was extremely understaffed and that was the one time I questioned my decision, thinking (and being told) that everywhere was like that, etc. Well everywhere isn't like that, and once I went to a better hospital, work life improved dramatically. Remember, to those entering the profession: I know it's tough right now but you must FIND A GREAT PLACE TO WORK, ONE THAT RESPECTS NURSES AND WHAT WE DO!!

 

[disfan07]

I have been in and out of the hospital for years. I always end up having extensive conversations with my nurses. One of the common themes is that they all HATE math. They all know math and have no problems with math and are execllent at what they need to know for their job but they absolutely hate it.

That and chemistry seem to be the 2 most loathed classes of any nurse that I have ever had. Everytime they have seen me working on either math or chem homework they all cringe...lol

Its like that with a lot of jobs. Just because you have to be good at something doesnt mean you have to liek it. NONE of my doctors like Organic chemistry. In fact, they all hate it. But they took it, they passed it and all is good. But they say that OChem is the devil. They love the biology adn anatomy/physio. aspect of medicine. Not the chem. aspect.