Oncology Fact Finder

From The Critics

Reviewer: Barbara E. Livingston, RN, NP, AOCN(Mount Sinai Hospital and Medical Center)
Description: This is a spiral-bound pocket sized handbook that offers a brief overview of all aspects of oncology nursing. Much of the information is imparted through the use of nursing diagnoses.
Purpose: Due to recent advances in therapy, many cancer patients are surviving longer. This fact, as well as changes in insurance reimbursement policies, has led to treating many oncology patients outside of the traditional oncology inpatient setting. The purpose of this book is to provide readily accessible information to nurses who are novices in the management of oncology care. This is a worthy objective, but trying to condense large amounts of information and making it easy to understand for a novice is very difficult. Some sections are confusing, but overall the book does work as a reference text.
Audience: It is designed for nurses in home care, primary care, and general practice who care for the patient with cancer but do not have an oncology background. The editors are experienced and credible, and are from a major cancer center.
Features: The bulk of the book consists of the last three sections, which cover information on specific types of cancer, symptom management, and the management of oncologic emergencies. Much of the information on caring for the cancer patient is imparted through the use of nursing diagnoses. I think this is a very effective method for the non-oncology nurse to quickly grasp caregiving issues relating to a specific symptom or type of cancer. In some chapters, true nursing diagnoses are not followed, and occasionally are redundant. The charts used are not as helpful as intended, and could have been of better quality. Also, more diagrams would have been useful, especially when explaining topics to a novice. How can one discuss DIC without a diagram of the coagulation cascade?
Assessment: The key to one's opinion of this book is related to his or her opinion of nursing diagnoses. If one favors their use, this book is good to have as a reference guide. It is also aimed at nurses without oncology experience; experienced oncology nurses may be disappointed. Another recent publication, Oncology Nursing Secrets, by Gates and Fink (Hanley & Belfus 1997) covers all of the same topics, but in a question and answer format. It is only slightly larger, but I think it has twice as much information and is designed for nurses with either limited or advanced oncology experience.

Barbara E. Livingston

This is a spiral-bound pocket sized handbook that offers a brief overview of all aspects of oncology nursing. Much of the information is imparted through the use of nursing diagnoses. Due to recent advances in therapy, many cancer patients are surviving longer. This fact, as well as changes in insurance reimbursement policies, has led to treating many oncology patients outside of the traditional oncology inpatient setting. The purpose of this book is to provide readily accessible information to nurses who are novices in the management of oncology care. This is a worthy objective, but trying to condense large amounts of information and making it easy to understand for a novice is very difficult. Some sections are confusing, but overall the book does work as a reference text. It is designed for nurses in home care, primary care, and general practice who care for the patient with cancer but do not have an oncology background. The editors are experienced and credible, and are from a major cancer center. The bulk of the book consists of the last three sections, which cover information on specific types of cancer, symptom management, and the management of oncologic emergencies. Much of the information on caring for the cancer patient is imparted through the use of nursing diagnoses. I think this is a very effective method for the non-oncology nurse to quickly grasp caregiving issues relating to a specific symptom or type of cancer. In some chapters, true nursing diagnoses are not followed, and occasionally are redundant. The charts used are not as helpful as intended, and could have been of better quality. Also, more diagrams would have been useful, especially when explaining topics to anovice. How can one discuss DIC without a diagram of the coagulation cascade? The key to one's opinion of this book is related to his or her opinion of nursing diagnoses. If one favors their use, this book is good to have as a reference guide. It is also aimed at nurses without oncology experience; experienced oncology nurses may be disappointed. Another recent publication, Oncology Nursing Secrets, by Gates and Fink (Hanley & Belfus 1997) covers all of the same topics, but in a question and answer format. It is only slightly larger, but I think it has twice as much information and is designed for nurses with either limited or advanced oncology experience.

3 Stars from Doody