kilopascal wrote:
>Sometimes I will rub salt into the wound by inferring that those who claim
>to know FFU really don't and only parrot the unit names.
>
A classic WOMBAT instance of this is the teaspoonful or the tablespoonful..
God knows what the parents of America use to measure their children's
liquid medication in response to directions of giving "one teaspoonful"
or "one tablespoonful"! It could be a souvenir coffee spoon from Texas,
or it could be a soup ladle. Healthcare is now in the spotlight for
accuracy, and medication errors are the hottest topic in healthcare
these past few years, but no one in officialdom has yet dealt with the
elimination of non-metric units in healthcare. I suppose this is so
because, in terms of publicity, there hasn't been a healthcare
equivalent of the Mars Orbiter disaster.
I have never asked the question of an individual, but if you were drill
someone on "how much" a teaspoonful contains, the subject with realize
that (s)he has never thought of such a measurement in exact terms, and
without a basic understanding of SI, would not be able to point to mL .
This may not be critical when measuring an oral suspension of
amoxicillin, but it would be critical in measuring a liquid such as
digoxin oral solution for a pediatric cardiac problem. True, that
product comes with its own calibrated dropper (actually calibrated in
milligrams), but some pharmacy somewhere will err and dispense it
without the dropper and an "eighth of a teaspoonful" instruction, which
is very unlikely, but not impossible.
--
Paul Trusten, R.Ph.
3609 Caldera Blvd., Apt. 122
Midland TX 79707-2872
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
