Tag: Fear in Mathematics

Ways Math is Used in Nursing

Math isn’t a topic that would go along with nursing. Nonetheless, nurses utilize math abilities every single day they are on the job. Whenever a nurse supervises treatment, computes an individual’s height or weight, she must make use of mathematics. Math is essential in nursing and may dictate the efficiency of the treatment the nurses administer.

Medicine Estimate
Nurses who are employed in hospitals need to ensure that the appropriate doses of medicine are given to their patients. The physician’s order will generally require a dosage of medicine that the hospital’s pharmacy doesn’t bring. For instance, a physician may order 150 mg of a treatment that is made only in 100 mg capsules or 300 mg scored capsules. In the event the hospital’s pharmacy only provides 100 mg capsules of the prescription drugs, the nurse must determine the number of tablets should be given to the patient. A wrong computation may endanger the life of the patient.

Patient Weight and height
Nurses must determine patients’ height as well as weight. The measuring procedure is usually basic and requires only basic math skills, some healthcare amenities demand nurses to convert the weight in kilos to pounds and also the height in inches to centimeters to the patient’s chart.

Inventory
Regardless of the hospital the nurse decides to be employed, he or she must handle inventory of some sort. Hospital floor nurses who are accountable for major patient care also handle the inventory of their patients’ medicines. Operating room nurse practitioners are accountable for inventory of working room supplies, and wound treatment nurses are accountable for stock of wound care items. The math necessary in these situations is comparable to that of fundamental accounting.

Experiential Learning: An Effective Teaching Strategy for Mathematics

Mathematics is undeniably a hard subject. Even the great minds of the past such as Albert Einstein know for a fact that there are difficulties in learning the matter. No wonder Math teachers experience difficulties in the way they teach students. The lecture approach where teachers let students memorize mathematical facts has long been gone. Today, teachers are called on to teach new and effective teaching methods to develop not only mastery, but comprehension as well.

Mathematics requires experiential learning where students are involved in their own understanding of mathematical concepts and practices. Through this type of learning, students are able to identify problems, use constructive reasoning to make viable arguments, and applying mathematics in real-life problems.

On improving mathematical concepts, a recent study explained that problem solving in mathematics is not a natural talent, but learned. The teacher’s role is to guide students through practice, provide both routine and non-routine problems, and help them develop their own strategies in solving those problems. In addition, the study highlights the importance of including the students in developing skills in problem solving and sharing them through argumentative discussions.

Traditionally, math textbooks often just provide fixed examples without providing rich experiences in problem solving. Teachers too often review the answers immediately without explaining what strategies students use to solve the problems or if the solutions can be explained by the students themselves.

For teachers to build their students’ mathematical problem solving strategies, they need to provide instruction that explores new concepts through scaffolding. Scaffolding includes asking guide questions that lead to answers rather than supplying them immediately.

In regards to experiential learning at the high school level, teachers need to focus on reasoning and acquire a sense of using mathematics on their daily lives. This is because U.S. high school students have the inability to apply math to solve problems in a variety of situations. This trends needs to be improved through experiential learning.

Is Mathematics Important in Healthcare?

You may be wondering why nursing and medical students need to study mathematics as a part of their course. We thought that nurses, physicians and other health care professionals must only study clinical procedures, treatments, medicines, anatomy and physiology. But the truth is math is incorporated into the daily lives of the health care professionals. Doctors and nurses use math when they write prescriptions or administer medications.  Medical professionals use math when drawing up statistical graphs of epidemics or success rates of treatments.

We are aware that doctors write prescriptions for their patients for various sicknesses. These prescriptions show a particular medication and dosage amount.  Usually, medicines have recommendations for dosage amounts in mg (mg) per kilogram (kg).  Doctors need to determine the number of mg of medicine each patient will require, based on how much they weigh.  When the weight of the patient is just known in pounds, doctors have to convert that measurement to kilos and then compute the amount in mg for that prescription.  There’s a really large distinction between mg/kg and mg/pounds, so it’s imperative that doctors learn how to precisely convert.

Doctors should also figure out how a prescription can last. They must be able to determine how long the medication will stay in the patient’s body. This is important, because through this, the patient will be aware about the interval of the medication. This can figure out how frequently the individual must take their medication to be able to keep an adequate amount of the medication in the body.

Mathematics plays a vital role in medicine. Since people’s lives are involved, it is crucial that nurses and doctors be really accurate with their mathematical calculations.  Numbers will give information to doctors, nurses, as well as patients.  Numbers are very essential within the medical area. Math is a crucial player within the healthcare arena. Medical companies must obtain reliable data and information to avoid, identify and treat medical conditions. Mastery of the tools of health care as well as scientific calculations will provide an efficient and lucrative delivery of services and reduces the chance of medical mistakes that may lead to malpractices and tragedies. The existence of mathematics in the medical theory will assure everyone that our doctors and nurses are properly trained and accurate with their prescription and medication.

Overcoming Fear in Mathematics

We all experience stress and anxiety but sometimes our fears of heights, insects or even mathematics can be unreasonable. In fact, mathematics stress, an acknowledged trend, can be a huge hurdle to learning. Fortunately, instructors who understand this can help their learners get over it. Math stress is typical. In 2005, United merican researchers Mark Ashcraft and Kelly Ridley approximated that 20 percent of people in America were extremely math nervous and it is reasonable to believe that the amount here would be similar. Math stress, as American specialist Ray Hembree has described, is the feeling of concern, stress or anxiety experienced along with mathematics.

German psycho therapist Reinhard Pekrun’s work on kids’ stress in regards to accomplishing a particular result helps describe why mathematics stress is so typical. Put simply, we are more likely to be nervous when we extremely value a process, but feel we have no control over it. Math is respected because it is considered an indication of intellect. So, displaying poor statistical capability has effects for how smart you will be recognized to be. Emotions of lack of control could come from the idea that mathematics is difficult, or the idea that you need a math mind to be successful in the subject. These two types of misconceptions cause mathematics stress, but it is the in-congruence, when a university student extremely values a process, but seems they are not in control, that results in stress.

Math stress predisposes learners to be sensitive to statistical stimuli; to experience worry almost instantly after they experience math and to be less capable of employing techniques to control this worry. It can also impact an individual’s capability to run working memory, the type of memory that allows them to hold information in their mind as they complete projects like psychological computations. So what can instructors do to lower mathematics stress and help learners control their psychological response to mathematics? A good first step is to deal with some of the misconceptions that can make learners feel negative towards the topic. They can motivate learners to believe that things like gender generalizations and adverse peer culture should not limit their statistical options. They can also make learners become aware of the many programs of mathematics in many professions and life routes.