Appendix 1 RESOURCE PACK
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE
Numeracy
FRACTIONS
Level 1 An esg. ReACH and TeACH resource
INTRODUCTION
This pack is intended to be a practical support to help you develop your number skills in a
way that is meaningful to the work you do.
The exercises are directly relevant to working in Health and Social Care and linked to tasks
and activities commonly found in care settings.
“Why do I need to be good at Maths when I’m doing Health and Social Care?”
All Health and Social Care roles involve understanding numbers and using and interpreting
information. There is a wide range of daily work tasks and routines that involve number
skills, for instance:
Measuring and recording fluid intake
Correctly reading drug instructions and recording medication given
Weighing or measuring clients
Extracting information from graphs, for example temperature or pulse
Writing numbers accurately and clearly, for example telephone numbers or weights.
Being good at maths is just as important as being able to communicate well. These skills are
essential to ensure resources are not wasted and most importantly to safeguard the people
you care for and support.
A care assistant knew how to mix a quantity of nutritional supplement drinks for 10 clients
but needed to prepare enough for 14. Worried and embarrassed at not being able to do the
calculation they decided to make enough for 20 people and pour what was left away.
Imagine the waste of valuable supplies and money.
Imagine what might have happened if amounts were miscalculated.
Imagine if the same person handled medicines and miscalculated the dose.
Developing number skills will also make it easier to achieve your qualifications, benefit from
work based training opportunities and improve your career prospects.
All this means that anyone working in a care setting needs good number skills to do their job
well and provide high quality care services.
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About this pack
The number skills in this resource pack focus on fractions.
The pack consists of a Revision Guide and practice exercises created specifically for Health
and Social Care workers.
How to use this pack
Your contact person at esg. will explain how to use the pack and make sure you understand
how to use it.
These exercises are not tests or exams and should not be timed; this means you can
complete them in your own time without rushing.
Try to find a quiet time and a quiet place to work through the pack.
You should not use a calculator, but please feel free to use paper to help you with your
calculations.
First, read the revision guide and then work through the exercise section.
When you have completed all the exercises please forward it to your contact person at esg.
for marking.
Feedback and support
Detailed feedback on your performance will then be given and any areas of uncertainty
explained.
Arrangements will then be made to provide further assistance for any additional support
needs identified; this will continue until you are confident in using this particular number skill.
The skills you develop by using this resource will not only support you in the workplace but
will also help with portfolio completion.
All results and feedback will be treated with complete confidentiality.
Please feel free to get in touch with your esg. contact person if you need further help with
this particular topic or any other number skills.
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REVISION GUIDANCE
FRACTIONS
“Why do I need to know about fractions?”
You might not know this, but fractions were invented many years ago (long before decimal
numbers) and they’re still being used now.
In fact you use and refer to them regularly in everyday life, probably without even knowing it:
talking about time - “See you in half an hour” or for working out medicines - “Child under 5
should be given one quarter of the adult dose”.
So fractions are everywhere and you need to be able to use them.
“So what is a fraction?”
A fraction is the name of part of a group of something.
One way to think of a fraction is a division that hasn’t been done yet.
In a fraction, the denominator tells us how many parts the whole is divided into and the
numerator tells us how many of those parts we’re dealing with.
Let’s think about the fraction “three quarters” for example:
3 → numerator
4 → denominator
You can read this fraction as “three fourths”, “3 over 4” or 3 divided by 4”.
You could also look at three quarters in this way
Every fraction can be converted to a decimal by dividing. So if you use the calculation to
divide 3 by 4 you’ll see that it is equal to 0.75.
Here are some other fractions and their decimal equivalents that you might well come across
at work and in everyday life:
1
2
equals 0.5
1
4
equals 0.25
4
1
8
equals 0.125
REVISION GUIDANCE
FRACTIONS
Now that you’ve had a quick reminder about fractions, try these exercises and see how you
get on. If you need help or advice please talk to your contact person at esg. who’ll be happy
to support you.
1. What fraction is represented by the shaded areas?
Answer:
2. Write one sixth as a fraction
Answer:
3. Write three sevenths as a fraction
Answer:
4. Write seven eighths as a fraction
Answer:
“Where else can I look for help with fractions?”
Here are some other places that can give you more information and support:
http://www.aaamath.com/fra16x2.htm
http://bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/maths/number/fractions
http://www.visulafractions.com/
http://www.mathsleague.com/help/fractions/fractions.htm
http://www.mathsnet.net/fractions
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WORK RELATED EXERCISES
FRACTIONS
It’s really important that you can use your number skills in the workplace.
Quick reminder
1.
If you cut a tablet into 2 equal pieces and take one of the pieces you have taken half a
tablet.
If a bandage is cut into 5 equal pieces and you use three of them to dress a leg wound
you’ve used three fifths of the bandage.
1
2
and
3
5
are examples of a fraction or parts of a whole.
2.
At Cardiff Nursing Home there are 14 female care workers and 11 male care workers.
What fraction of the care workers are male?
Solution
The numerator of the fraction is the number of male care workers.
The denominator of the fraction is the total number of care workers at the nursing home.
The total number of care workers is 14 plus 11 (25).
So the fraction of care workers that are male is:
11
25
Exercise
What fraction of this bandage is represented by the shaded area?
Answer:
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