PART I: BACKGROUND ASSESSMENT

Directions: Answer each of the following questions. Your responses should be 3-5 sentences in length for each question.

1. Distinguish between Roman numerals and the Arabic numeral system. Why must health care workers be familiar with Roman numerals?

2. Describe the procedure for reading and writing Roman numerals?

3. Describe the process of writing an improper fraction for 1 ½.

4. If a health care professional administers ½ of a tablet of medication every day to a child, how many tablets has the child taken in 5 days? Please explain your solution process.

5. What is a place value?

6. In addition and subtraction of decimals, why would extra zeroes need to be added after the decimal point?

7. How can a percent be changed to a decimal?

8. Describe a percent in relation to a fraction.

9. Explain how the ratio proportion method is used for drug calculations?

10. The order states that the patient should receive 500 mg of ampicillin intravenously. After reconstituting the vial according to the manufacturer's instructions, the resulting solution has 1000 mg in every milliliter. How would the ratio proportion method be used to determine how much of the solution the patient should receive?

11. Describe the process of converting degrees Fahrenheit into degrees Celsius.

12. Describe the system of weights and measures that is used exclusively in the United States Pharmacopoeia.

13. Explain the units of measure in the metric system.

PART II: CRITICAL THINKING

Directions: Please provide responses to questions below. If necessary, please use examples or information from the textbook. Please use proper APA citation for any resources that you use. For concise APA formatting guidelines, please visit the Academic Resource Center (ARC). Your responses should be 1-2 paragraphs in length for each question.

1. Describe the procedure for reading and writing Roman numerals?

2. A health care professional has 8 mg of a drug available in a 4 mL solution. In this situation, how would the health care professional determine the milligrams per milliliter by using the procedure for converting between improper fractions and whole numbers?

3. A health care professional needs to perform a calculation by dividing 60 by 8. By using the procedure for division of decimals, what answer would this calculation yield?

4. An 80-year-old patient with renal failure has a fluid restriction of 1000 mL in 24 hours. The health care professional notes that the patient drank 650 mL in 8 hours. What percent of the 1000 mL restriction did the patient drink?

5. Why do health care professionals who administer medications need to know the ratio-proportion method?

6. Which of the two temperature scales, Fahrenheit or Celsius, is the most accurate? Which is used most often in medicine?

7. A 3-year-old boy is prescribed phenytoin (Dilantin) by mouth. The child's mother wants to know if she should use a teaspoon or an oral syringe to administer the medication to her son. How should the health care professional respond to her question?