NURSE ANESTHETIST QUESTION: Mathematics of Nursing

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Hello! I'm currently a Nursing student working to get my Bachelor's degree. I've been assigned a very unique project for one of my math courses- to write a paper about the mathematics involved in my potential career.

That being said, I would like to hear from some Nurse Anesthetists about the following:

  • do you ever have to create schedules, and if so, what does that process look like?
  • what are some math skills you consider important for your career? ratios, proportions, etc?
  • what are some general "logic" problems that you have to solve on a daily basis?

I thank you for your contribution to the knowledge of a future Nurse in advance! :)

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Specializes in Emergency.

This is the wrong subforum. I recommend checking out this:

https://allnurses.com/certified-registered-nurse/

I would also recommend you asking the CRNAs of the hospital that you do clinical rotation in. Those are three simple and fast questions, so you should not get much push back.

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Thank you! I appreciate your help. :)

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Lots of mathematics- Such as Ketamine comes in a 5cc vial containing 500mgs. I want to be able to administer doses as needed of 10 mg per cc. How many cc do you draw up and how many cc do you use of normal saline to to end up with a 10cc syringe of 10 mg/cc of ketamine. Or you are giving 2 liters per minute of 100% oxygen and 2 liters of air- what do you expect the FIO2 of that mixture to be? Good luck!

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Specializes in Emergency.

Is FiO2 the ventilation percentage? As in room air is 21% and each liter increases it by 3%.

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If you are delivering O2 via nasal cannula the FIO2 increases by 4% for each liter increase because the patient is still entraining room air. In general anesthesia delivered by endotracheal tube or LMA the only gas the patient gets is the 4 liters I am delivering through the anesthesia machine so with 2 L of air (.21 %) and 2 L oxygen (100%) I expect my machine to read an FIO2 of approximately .6 or 60%- If I see something markedly different I start looking for issue. Best of Luck

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