How College Algebra is used in the Nursing Field - Essay Example

Across the globe, the numbers provide lots information to be used by the medical professionals. Moreover, it is quite reassuring when the public realizes that the nurses who serve them have a strong and proper training in mathematics (linear algebra) and how it is applied in medicine. Nursing being a social science, it requires more than the usual attention to the bedside caring methods. This is a profession that requires a strong foundation in mathematics, precisely linear algebra. The basic algebra formulas and calculations enable a nurse to perform all their duties that can range from the care of patients to the aiding doctors.

This paper is meant to the how a professional nurse can apply the algebraic knowledge in every aspect of day to day duties. It will discuss the medication bit of the profession, the medical data collection and analysis tools, the working equipment, various specialties and the laboratory or the lab interpretations. Beside this, the paper is going to discuss the aspect of prescriptions, the possible proportions and ratios, the patient’s body mass indices and the CAT scans that all apply the linear algebra concept and knowledge (Elliot & Joyce, 2005).

To start with, as a professional nurse, i will apply linear algebra in administering the rightful medication which requires some mathematical concepts or rather ideas in the calculation of the correct dosage like the intravenous amounts of fluids and the size of pills. Regularly, nurses administer medication which is prescribed by doctors for respective patients. Most of these medications have a number of guidelines that include the amount of dosage such as the milligrams per kilogram. Thus, the nurses must figure out the amount of medication in milligrams required by a patient, depending on how they weigh.

If a patient mass is weighed in pounds, a nurse has to convert the required ratios to kilograms and find the right milligram amount for the medication or prescription. In medicine, there is a big difference between the mg/Ibs and the mg/kg. Thus, it is imperative that a professional nurse understands how to convert these weight measurements accurately. Moreover, there are some instances where a nurse must determine the duration of a prescription. For instance, if a patient has to take a medication such as a single pill thrice a day for duration of one month, a nurse has to calculate the number of pills which will be sufficient for this period.

These calculations have to be done mentally with accuracy and speed. Moreover, while administering medication, I will consider the amount of time a medication lasts in the human body since most medication decreases by specific percentages over time; say by ten percent (10%) in every hour. Thus, these percentages will have to be expressed in rational numbers or rather fractions; 1/10. The constant decrease in the ratios creates a geometric series or rather a geometric sequence. Therefore, if the medication given to the patient is a pill of 100mg, the drug decrease in the body each hour will be expressed as 100, 10, 1, 1/10, 1/100, … From this sequence, the amount of medication in the body of a patient after say five hours is close to zero.

Thus, the sequence of the above numbers gives a geometric series due to the common ratio of 1/10. So, I will use this idea to decide on how often a patient can take a particular prescription. As a nurse I will