The Geriatric Nurse's Survival Guide

The book contains black-and-white illustrations.

Nurse's Survival Guide Series Quick-reference guide useful to the practitioner caring for geriatric clients. Covers assessment, drug administration, infection control, transcultural nursing and resources. Trim size: 7 x 5 inches. DNLM: Nursing Assessment—handbooks.

Marquis D. Foreman

This is a new basic, bedside reference book for nursing staff caring for elderly patients and/or residents. Assessment is emphasized by this book, thereby seeming to imply that the purpose is to help the frontline caregivers to improve and make more comprehensive their assessments of older persons more comprehensive. Given the fact that the book is written at a very basic level and in a very concrete manner emphasizing assessment and not intervention, it would seem that the target audience is nurse aides and LPNs. The author makes no indication as to the target audience. This reference guide consists of ten sections: introduction; assessment; drug administration; infection control; transcultural nursing; nursing considerations; nursing care planning; financing health care; clinical referrals; and an index. Each section is written in a tabular or list format. To be a useful bedside reference, the book is too complex. The emphasis on assessment without equivalent attention to intervention also minimizes the contribution of this book. It would appear that this book attempted to be a little bit of everything and as a result is mostly nothing.

As an independent nurse consultant and educator, Barbara Acello, MS, RN, has worked in long-term care for more than thirty-three years. In addition to owning and operating a school for nursing assistants, she helped to write and develop mandatory state curricula for nurse aides and EMTs. She has also written and/or contributed to approximately 60 textbooks, instructor guides, quick reference guides, and supplemental instructional material for healthcare personnel.
During her nursing career, Ms. Acello has worked in eight states as a director of nursing, long-term care facility consultant, and educator.
With a particular interest and expertise in the clinical geriatrics, Ms. Acello's subspecialties include resident safety, pain assessment and management, restraints, pressure ulcers, and infection control. She is committed to improving working conditions, education, and professionalism for personnel in the long-term care industry.