Reviewer: Dana L. Beatty, DNP, MS, RN, APN/CNM, NE-BC(Rush University Medical Center)
Description: This book presents fundamentals of nursing for nursing students, nurses, and nursing professors. It is user-friendly, easy to read, and separated efficiently into five units — Unit 1: How Nurses Think; Unit 2: Factors Affecting Health; Unit 3: Essential Nursing Interventions; Unit 4: Supporting Physiologic Function; and Unit 5: The Context for Nurses' Work.
Purpose: The author shares in the preface the importance of providing a basic nursing book for nursing students. This objective is very beneficial to readers. The fundamentals course in nursing is the anchor that supports all other areas that proceed in the nursing curriculum. Each nursing class is built from the start of fundamental nursing. This book is therefore the most important resource and reference for any nursing student's success. Availability of the book in hard copy and online format gives choices to the readers to access at their convenience. This book exceeds the mark of meeting its objectives.
Audience: This book is written for nursing students, but I believe it extends to a broader audience including all nursing clinicians and nursing professors. The book is very comprehensive and integrates the most important aspects related to basic nursing, as well as for the novice nurse. It is well written for the intended audience. Each author is without question a credible and accomplished authority on the book's subject matter. Dr. Leslie S. Treas, PhD, RN, is published in journals and textbooks related to neonatal nursing, nursing licensure preparation, and prediction and critical thinking. She has coauthored many editions of various F. A. Davis texts, including Fundamentals of Nursing: Theory, Concepts, and Application as well as Basic Nursing: Concepts, Skills and Reasoning. Dr. Karen Barnett, DNP, RN, has over 25 years of extensive nursing experience including nursing, patient care administration, and education. She has served as Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Studies for the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and has continued to maintain clinical competence by working as a nursing supervisor at an acute care community hospital. Mable H. Smith, PhD, JD, MN, NEA-BC, has vast experience in academia, administration, and clinical practice and is presently the Assistant Vice President of Health Care Programs at Monroe College. Dr. Smith has published myriad publications on the legal and ethical issues in nursing education and the healthcare arena. She has more than 25 years of experience in teaching undergraduate nursing leadership and management; a background in legal/ethical practice and healthcare policy; and experience working in adult health and critical care. She is well published in leading journals and is the author of The Legal, Ethical and Professional Dimensions of Education in Nursing, 2nd Edition (Springer Publishing Company, 2011). In addition, Dr. Smith has a military background as a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and is the Individual Mobilization Augmentee to the prestigious Surgeon General, Air University at Maxwell AFB, Alabama.
Features: The preface is impactful for readers. It methodically walks readers through the book with road maps to stop in areas of interest. Each topic includes a brief yet detailed explanation about what the author is conveying in each chapter of the book. The preface shares evidence-based rationales and areas of resources with appropriate citations for reviewing later. This information encourages readers to include this book in their personal library for future reference. I thoroughly appreciated how the authors separated and explained how the chapters are divided (i.e., organization, features, themes). The title of each unit incorporates the subject matter of each specific chapter related to the unit. As previously mentioned, the units include Unit 1: How Nurses Think; Unit 2: Factors Affecting Health; Unit 3: Essential Nursing Interventions; Unit 4: Supporting Physiologic Function; and Unit 5: The Context for Nurses' Work. The topics in unit 1 (chapters 1-4) are specifically related to how nurses think, including the history of nurse leaders, healthcare delivery and critical thinking, the nursing process, and the importance of evidence-based practices. Unit 2 (chapters 5-13) are related to factors that affect health from infancy through middle adulthood, including how to adapt and cope with stress; depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and mental illness; challenges to family health; and spirituality and death and dying. Unit 3 (chapters 14-23) are related to the essentials of nursing intervention, including health promotion; communication; patient education; stages of cognitive development; documentation; vital signs; physical assessment; the body's defenses against infection; safety, hygiene, and self-care; and administration of medications. Unit 4 (chapters 24-36) are related to supporting physiological functions, such as nutrition, urinary elimination, bowel elimination, factors affecting sensory functions, pain and physical activity/immobility, sexual health, sleep and rest, skin integrity and wound healing, oxygenation, circulation and perfusion, hydration and homeostasis, and pre-operative, intra-operative, and post-operative care. Unit 5 (chapters 37-41) include topics related to the context for nurses' work, such as community and home health nursing, nursing informatics, legal accountability, management, and ethics and values. Each unit is very clear, detailed, and easy to read, which is an enormous challenge to master in a nursing book. Each subtopic flows seamlessly into the next subtopic. Although the book is lengthy with over 41 chapters, it is scrupulously written and exceptionally completed. The illustrations, tables, and charts are exceptionally done and beneficial to each chapter.
Assessment: I wholeheartedly recommend this book to support academic endeavors in fundamentals of nursing courses. This book will provide added value to my personal and professional library of nursing books. I was so impressed with how the book was organized and written. The title of this book is spot on and gives the audience a clear depiction of what it is about. The table of contents is sequenced in a color-coded system that corresponds with the chapter and page coloring on the side of the book, which makes for finding the units immediately. The website is designed to flow and navigate the audience to the units they are searching for. The intended audience should find this book very useful and an evidence-based resource to assist in providing precise knowledge to share with their colleagues and students. I plan to use this book and will recommend it to the universities where I am on staff as adjunct faculty in the Colleges of Nursing.
