Real-Life Math
You sit on the edge of Tom's bed. You find that he is still a bit unsure about his surgery and so you talk about the procedure with him. You spend as much time as it takes to calm Tom, and then you move on to your next patient.
"At the end of the day we have to add up our statistics," says Sharon Paulse, a child life specialist. "We have to total up hours, but we don't need to make calculations for medications that nurses have to do."
Your shift is over for the day, and you are looking over your schedule for tomorrow, allotting time for each visit.
You work an 8-hour shift. Remember that these 4 hours include 2 15-minute coffee breaks, and a half-hour paid lunch break. These are the timeslots you are trying to fill in for your day tomorrow.
Your schedule:
Tom: 45 minutes
Sarah: needs 20 percent more time than Tom
Ali: 85 minutes
Twins Ava and Alice: 2 half-hour sessions
Mottershead family: 3-hour session
As you are preparing to leave, you get a call and find out that you should try to fit in 45 minutes to see George.
As it stands now, do you have time to see George tomorrow, or will you have to juggle your schedule to fit him in?