Jerry et al, relax;, not scary at all. I am certain that the right things get done to protect the patient without a hitch. Unfortunately from our perspective, virtually all treatment and discussion of body temperature in the U.S. is done in Fahrenheit degrees. But, nobody's fever is missed.
Not being able to think Celsius is not yet a job prerequisite in healthcare. In our hospital, there are only one or two physicians who use Celsius temperature in their dosing parameters, and interpretation in Fahrenheit is only a phone call away if nurses don't have a conversion chart. Of course, converting away from metric units is total anathema to the process of metrication, but here's the sad truth--we in the U.S. are not metricating yet. True metrication comes when SI is announced to be the only standard in effect by a certain date; when all people involved are educated in that standard, and when SI-only equipment is available to measure the values. If we are talking about Celsius, then we want everything done in Celsius---treatment principles based upon it, staff knowing it, instruments recording in it, and records kept in it. Successful metrication does not require changing just one of these things. Successful metricaton requires changing all of these things. Paul Trusten, R.Ph. Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association (USMA), Inc. www.metric.org 3609 Caldera Boulevard, Apartment 122 Midland TX 79707-2872 US +1(432)528-7724 mailto:[email protected] ----- Original Message ----- From: Jeremiah MacGregor To: U.S. Metric Association Sent: 24 January, 2009 08:35 Subject: [USMA:42426] Re: Is there any literature on metrication in the US aimed at immigrants? Paul, If there are no Celsius fever thermometers in the house, then why not order some? If a nurse doesn't know what 38 means, then should she be practicing? She is liable to make a mistake that costs someone their life. Can't you just tell them that 38 is one degree above normal or supply them with a Celsius thermometer? This whole situation sounds very scary. It is surprising that the hospitals are this careless. One would think they should know better. What is wrong with teaspoons, are they not equal to 5 mL exactly? Jerry ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: "Paul Trusten, R.Ph." <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Cc: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2009 4:39:48 PM Subject: [USMA:42356] Re: Is there any literature on metrication in the US aimed at immigrants? Pierre, in the absence of real-world U.S. metrication, it's hard to suggest people to use metric here, even in the healthcare world itself. One of the doctors in my hospital orders antipyretic (anti-fever) medication with the parameter "if temperature over 38." Not sure if he is aware that there isn't a single Celsius fever thermometer in the house, or, if switchable, I'm sure they are not switched over to Celsius because all the charting is done in Fahrenheit. I've had nurses calling me to ask what "38" means, and I have no choice but to commit metrication sin and back-convert for them. Even physicians who were trained abroad--which means metric countries, of course--end up following my pet peeve of ordering oral liquid medications in teaspoon volumes instead of milliliter volumes, but all orders for such are expressed on the record as milliliters. As a U.S. medical tool, the teaspoon should go the way of the iron lung. Metrication is a truly national, societal process. Clinical temperature measurement is a good example. To TRULY change to Celsius fever measurement in a U.S. institution, you need ALL of the following: 1)Celsius orders 2)Celsius thermometers 3)Celsius-educated staff Still, I do think that the issue of how immigrants to the U.S. feel about metric has scarcely been explored. Thank you for suggesting it. I'll look into it. Paul T. However, at every opportunity, I have spearheaded the sole use of metric at my facility Quoting Pierre Abbat <[email protected]>: > > The church yesterday held a health screening where they checked our > cholesterol, glucose, and other signs. After getting my blood glucose > checked, I went to another station which had a digital scale (pèse-personne). > I stepped on it and it showed my mass in pounds, which is meaningless to me, > since I have always thought of it in kilograms since I was 36 kg when they > introduced metric in school. The nurse then tried to divide by 2.2 in her > head and got it wrong. I volunteered my calculator, which has the conversion > built in; she entered the numbers and got 0, because it's reverse Polish, > which she's unfamiliar with. > > After everyone else had been weighed, I turned the scale over, flipped the > switch, stepped on it, and read 56.8, which agrees with my mass measured at > home, considering that I was wearing clothes. I know she is familiar with > kilograms because (1) she's an immigrant; (2) I overheard her explaining to > the previous patient that you divide your mass in kilograms by the square of > your height in meters; and (3) I talked with her after flipping the switch. > > It appears that the immigrants try to conform to what they think is the way > we > do it. Is there any literature aimed at people who come here already knowing > metric, but haven't lived through the introduction of metric in the 1970s, > empowering them to push Americans to metricate? > > Pierre > > --
