Chapter Review and Assessment
296 Essential Skills for Health Careers Success
Summary
No matter what healthcare fi eld you decide to
enter, you will be required to perform some math
calculations when doing your job. In this chapter
you reviewed basic math skills such as recogniz-
ing types of numbers, and practicing addition,
subtraction, multiplication, and division. Frac-
tions, decimals, percentages, basic algebra, ratios,
and proportions are also important skills to mas-
ter, and will be used in your healthcare career.
Analyzing data is another skill for the health-
care worker to practice. You can use the mean,
median, and mode, along with charts and graphs
to illustrate the relationships among numbers.
Data analysis is a critical part of healthcare.
Healthcare employees continuously compile sta-
tistics about the facility. Compiling this data may
include gathering and updating patient informa-
tion, keeping track of nosocomial infection rates,
and tracking on-hand medical supplies.
Although the metric system of measurement
is used in healthcare and science disciplines, the
majority of the United States continues to use the
English system. As you begin your healthcare
career you must understand the metric system
and its basic units—the gram, liter, and meter.
Converting measurements of temperature from
the metric, Celsius scale to commonly used Fahr-
enheit values is another important math skill for
all healthcare students to master.
Because of its accuracy, the 24-hour clock
(military time) is used in most healthcare settings.
Healthcare workers must learn how to read and
easily use military time. Maintaining accurate and
proper records is dependent on the use of this
timekeeping system.
Improving your math skills will not only ben-
efi t your career, but it can make things easier in
your daily life. People with strong math skills are,
for example, better at maintaining a budget than
those people who lack math skills.
Review Questions
Short Answer
1. What is the difference between the 12-hour
clock and the 24-hour clock?
2. Explain how spreadsheets and databases
might be used in a healthcare facility.
3. Which measuring system is used throughout
most of the world? Why is this measuring
system preferred?
4. Explain the concept of a common denominator.
5. What is the base ten system in math?
6. What are the differences between ordinal
and nominal numbers?
True/False
7. True or False? The English system is more
logical than the metric system.
8. True or False? Algebra contains equations.
9. True or False? The 24-hour clock is the same
as military time.
10. True or False? The term percentage means
per 100.
11. True or False? A yard is a metric measurement.
12. True or False? If you have a calculator, there is
no need to improve your math skills.
13. True or False? Addition is the opposite of
multiplication.
14. True or False? The statistical tool called the
mean is a mathematical average of data.
15. True or False? A zero should be placed before
a decimal point if there is no whole number.
Multiple Choice
16. _____ is the branch of mathematics that sub-
stitutes letters for numbers.
A. Algebra
B. Arithmetic
C. Geometry
D. Statistics