Barry Schoenborn

No matter what initials you have after your name (RN, CNA, PA, and so on), you can bet you’ll see math on a daily basis if you’re going into (or are already in) a career in the medical field.Grasping some medical math basics — such as how to break down medical dosage problems into steps and use conversion factors — can simplify everyday situations all health care professionals face.

Grasping some technical math basics can simplify everyday situations faced by many professionals and even non-professionals, including having to solve word problems, calculate tips, make change, or match American and metric measurements.Simple steps for solving word problemsWord problems aren’t just on school tests.

When you're preparing to take the PANCE or PANRE, you may feel like you have to know an endless amount of information. How will you ever remember all the details of so many diseases and conditions? Here, you can review some useful mnemonics that will not only help your recall as you prepare for your physician assistant exam but also improve your clinical acumen.

Using real-life math can simplify everyday situations. Math comes in handy every time you take a trip, go shopping, or do projects around the house.Estimating taxes and discounts when shoppingWhen you go shopping, you often encounter discounts and sales offers that change the price of an item. In addition, many states in the United States charge sales tax, and if you’re shopping abroad, you may face a value added tax.

Word problems aren’t just on school tests. You solve word problems every day in your work or even while you’re just out and about. Don’t worry — these steps make solving word problems easier than you think. Just follow these easy steps to take away the mystery: Read the problem. Begin by reading the problem carefully.

As a healthcare professional, you have to convert patient weights, fluid volumes, medication weights, and more. Conversion math isn’t hard to do as long as you know the basic conversion factors. Here are the most useful ones: Converting lb to kg and kg to lb lb = kg × 2.2 kg = lb ÷ 2.2 Converting mL to L a

The pancreas is an important organ that has many functions in the body, both endocrine and exocrine and will be covered on the Physician Assistant Exam (PANCE). Concerning endocrine function, the pancreas produces insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin (or it’s supposed to). Concerning exocrine function, the pancreas secretes digestive enzymes such as the proteases, lipase, and amylase.

Before getting into nasty medication side effects, drug-drug interactions, and toxic ingestions, you need to review basic pharmacological principles for the Physician Assistant Exam (PANCE). The body processes a medication in four basic ways: absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination. If any of these processes is altered in some way, then bad things can happen.

If you’ve ever had to match American and metric measurement units, you know direct comparisons of these unit systems can be tricky. If you need to know the metric equivalent of an inch, for example, or the American equivalent of a kilometer, use the following table to help you make a proper comparison between the two systems of measurement.