I'm trying to put together some numeracy exercises for nurses.
There's this website with a quiz. The javascript (with answers and solutions) doesn't work properly, but when you hover over the 'Show the correct answer' link, it displays the correct answer at the bottom status bar of a web browser)
I think they got one question wrong.

According to them, the correct answer it's 80cc/min, which doesn't seem to be right. I think that 80cc appears to be the volume per HOUR, not per minute. I've spent all day preparing this kind of stuff and can't tell what's right or wrong anymore

thanks

14.6 cc/m?

The patient would then receive approximately 7500 units of the medication in an hour

However I look at it, I get 1.3(3)cc/min. Is that right?

5000 units in 500 ml equates to 10 units/ml.

So the patient receives 800 units/hr at 10 units/ml = 80 ml/hr.

= 1 1/3 ml/minute (80/60)

Since 1 ml = 1 cc, = 1 1/3 cc/min.

Ok, thanks. Good. So it's them, not me

My calculations:

1⅓

I did it using the Qalculate! Plasma widget

Thanks guys, We all got the same result (different notation) so it's definitely their mistake. Just wanted some assurance that I'm not missing something.

I hope you sent an email to Bonnie Angel pointing out her mistake. Not a good advert for the University of North Carolina!

Yeah.. I know a lot of nurses, and the examples they use most often to describe the risks involved in nursing...

"Imagine patient x needs y cubic centimeters of chemical j, and if you give him just d more cubic centimeters of chemical j, or you give him less, then he may die.


So, imagine your doctor asks you for .3cc of chemical j, and you get .03cc.

Might kill that person.

I discussed it with the group I teach. The good thing is that in real life they are not allowed to make any decision like that on their own. There has to be another person who will confirm the result. The worrying thing is that it seems they were taught a few formulae and sometimes they apply them blindly without trying to understand the problem first. In 99% cases it works, but in this field 99% is not good enough.


I haven't thought of doing it. Actually I might do. The website hasn't been updated for 7 years and the js is broken (perhaps for a reason)

The answer is "zero," because the Republicans will insist on searching for a Death Panel Review Board and in the time it takes for them to discover that the panels don't exist and decide to make one up, the patient will have died.

Or, given that North Carolina is a Republican state and the Republicans' health plan is "die quickly," maybe the answer really is "80cc per minute" ....

Well, because it is IV infusion and heparin, I doubt he would die ... you'd probably catch the mistake before he died, and the half life is only 1 hour.

heparin is a blood thinner. If there were any internal complications at all, the patient could easily bleed to death before the mistake was caught.