Fractions, Decimals, and Percentages

In the clinical environment, a single value often wears multiple disguises. A physician may prescribe 0.125 milligrams of a medication, the pharmacy might dispense a 1/8 milligram tablet, and the pharmacokinetic literature will describe its bioavailability as 12.5%. These are not three distinct quantities; they are identical values translated into different mathematical dialects. Fluency in fractions, decimals, and percentages is not merely a prerequisite for the TEAS 7 exam; it is the fundamental grammar of safe patient care. Misplacing a decimal point or misinterpreting a fraction is the difference between a therapeutic dose and a lethal one. Mastering these conversions ensures that whether a quantity is expressed as a part of a whole, a base-10 decimal, or a proportion of one hundred, its true magnitude remains unmistakably clear.