Math for Medical Assistants and Healthcare Professionals

As part of a health care team, medical assistants help patients with their health concerns. To be successful in that role, medical assistants must apply key math concepts such as:

• Calculate medication dosage
• Metric system conversion
• How to read a gauge (sphygmomanometer)
• How to read a scale (pounds, kilograms)
• How to plot and read a graph
• How to read measurements using a ruler (millimeters, centimeters, inches, feet)
• Convert from inches to feet and feet to inches
• Count by twos and 10s
• Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
• Simplify a fraction

To prepare students to be successful in Wake Tech’s Medical Assisting program, all applicants will be required to complete the non-credit Math for Medical Assistants and Healthcare Professionals (MAT-3713A7) course by the end of the first semester in Medical Assisting. (Click the link to find out when MAT-3713A7 is offered.)

Students can get the MAT-3713A7 course requirement waived by scoring an 84% or better on the Medical Assisting Math Readiness Assessment, which is given at the program orientation. Students will be provided one opportunity to retest. The retest will be scheduled by the Medical Assisting department head near the end of the first eight weeks of the first semester.

For assistance with preparing to take the assessment, review the Math for Medical Assistants Review Guide.

Additional assistance can be obtained by visiting Wake Tech’s Individualized Learning Center, as well as visiting the following math resources:

• Math.com – All types of math instruction
• Help with Fractions
• CoolMath.com – Decimal Lessons
• Purple Math – Algebra instruction
• S.O.S. Mathematics – Algebra, trigonometry and calculus instruction
• MathTV.com – Videos of teachers explaining math concepts.
• Khan Academy – Math videos and tutorials.