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A nurse explains why metric is better for the NHS
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Riane Martin
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I began nursing training in 1977, qualifying as an SEN (State Enrolled
Nurse) with experience in psychiatry, paediatrics, geriatric and general
nursing care. I also had the good fortune to have been educated in Australia,
which, like all other Commonwealth nations, changed to full metric usage
in the 1970s.
Unlike the haphazard and confusing way in which this transition was
handled in the UK, Australia introduced rapid public information about
the change and why it was for the benefit of the nation to have one,
easy-to-use system, in much the same way as it changed from £/s/d
currency to dollars and cents. (The change to decimal currency was properly
done in the UK too and for same reason!)
Like other young people in Australia (and indeed young people over
the past three decades in the UK) I learned to cook, build school projects,
run races, gauge temperatures etc., all using a standard system based
on 10s, 100s and 1 000s with any memory of the cumbersome complexities
of the confusing old system soon forgotten.
On my return to the UK I worked for the NHS. Our NHS has been extremely
progressive in its move to total reference to metric units in health
records for our patients. Heights and weights are recorded in metres
and kilograms respectively, with the appropriate tape measure and scales
in hospitals and doctors' surgeries right across the country. Many of
you will be pleased to know that our Body Mass Indices are calculated
by using weight in kg and height in metres.
Modern health records just cannot be done in the old measures! In our
modern age, doctors and nurses need to be "speaking the same language" for
the sake of the patient's safety. For example, pharmacological dosages
are always in metric (usually in milligrams or micrograms) and hence
relate easily to body weights in kg. Sadly, in my profession, I had learnt
of the death of a child through a health care professional using metric
and a social worker incorrectly recording details in imperial.
Many operations and procedures are carried out today by satellite link
and telephone with specialists in other countries. It is imperative that
everyone knows instantly the correct information as lives would easily
be lost if dealing with quantities which needed to be "translated" into
other units. Imagine a surgeon in the UK speaking of "inches" of
an incision to a specialist in Japan who only knows cm, or taking a sudden
decision of how much medication to prescribe against a person's body
weight if the weight quoted was not understood at all. Drug dosages that
depend on body weight are always specified with respect to kilograms
e.g. in μg per kg.
Despite what is reported in newspapers, newborn babies are weighed
in kilograms, with each gram of weight gain and loss meticulously recorded
in antenatal clinics across the UK. Young mothers are metric-educated
themselves (no one of childbearing age at this time in UK history can "only
understand" imperial!) Our babies are fed with quantities recorded
in millilitres and grams, with their weight gains and losses appropriately
measured in grams too. All nurses are metric-educated here or come from
metric-using countries. Of course body temperatures are all recorded
in degrees Celsius for safety and clear understanding.