Overview
This classic resource for critical care nursing is now a full-color text that provides a thorough examination of all the important aspects of critical care nursing with more appealing illustrations and design elements. Organized in ten units around alterations in body systems, this text's depth and scope will appeal to both novice and expert, while instructors praise its comprehensiveness and depend on its clinical relevance to inform their teaching and practice.
• Special Feature list located in the inside front and back covers provide a quick reference for finding this information.
• Clinical Applications promote student learning and critical thinking by illustrating the clinical course of a patient experiencing the history, clinical manifestations, treatment, and outcomes discussed.
• Data Collection feature incorporates information that should be included as part of the patient's history.
• Nursing Diagnoses feature fosters critical thinking and decision making in a boxed "menu" of nursing diagnoses, complete with specific etiologic or related factors.
• Nursing Interventions Classification (NIC) feature lists the important nursing actions for a variety of nursing interventions that would be commonly incorporated in the management of a critically ill patient requiring a specific therapeutic management.
• Patient Education feature list the special topics that should be taught to the patient and family to prepare them for discharge.
• Pharmacologic Management Tables outline the common medications, along with any special considerations, used in treatment of the different disorders presented in the text.
• Full-color design and illustrations visually enhance the text.
• Evidence-Based Collaborative Practice feature highlights important research based articles on important topics like diabetic ketoacidosis, coronary artery disease and stable angina, and severe sepsis to help students understand the clinical significance of the problem.
• Patient Safety Alert feature highlights any safety issue for the learner that is specific and related to the chapter discussion as well as prepares the learner for important clinical situations.
• Collaborative Management boxes focus on the aspects of multidisciplinary care in the management of patients in the critical care setting. These are found in the nursing management sections, where appropriate, and are a numbered box.
• Pulmonary Disorders chapter now covers SARS.
• Neurologic Alterations chapters are restructured to three chapters in the unit.
• Organ Donation and Transplantation chapter now has important information on organ donation and procurement process.
Editorials
From The Critics
Reviewer: Julie A. Stanik-Hutt, PhD, ACNP, CCNS(Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing)Description: This fifth edition of a well known critical care nursing textbook replaces the outdated version published in 2001. The first section covers the foundations of critical care nursing and the second section focuses on special populations of critically ill individuals (children, pregnant women, elders, and patients undergoing surgical procedures). The rest of the book presents information organized in a systems format, and concludes with a section on multisystem problems.
Purpose: While not specifically stated, the book is written for undergraduate nursing students. It serves this audience well, as have previous editions.
Audience: "The book is intended for use by undergraduate nursing students and is written at a level appropriate for them. The first section of foundational content related to critical care nursing creates the context for subsequent disease-specific chapters. The editors are seasoned experts in critical care nursing, and contributors hold relevant advanced academic degrees and certifications and are experienced practitioners. "
Features: The first section covers the historical, ethical, and legal basis for this nursing specialty. Chapters cover common problems of interest to nursing, sleep, pain, nutrition, agitation, patient education, psychological support, and end of life care. The section on special populations is unique. The last section of the book, focusing on multisystem problems, includes specific chapters on organ donation and transplantation and on hematologic and oncologic emergencies, topics rarely covered in basic critical care nursing textbooks. The rest of the book covers the typical systems-formatted content and includes the standard anatomy/physiology, patient assessment, diagnostic procedures, and common diagnoses and management.
Assessment: This updated version includes unique sections on pregnant patients, end of life care, organ donation and transplantation, and oncologic emergencies. While it would be nice to see more comprehensive coverage of the end of life and oncologic emergencies, this book at least introduces these issues. The section on mechanical ventilation, a very commonly deployed therapy in critical care, is extremely limited. One feature which will be particularly useful for students is the use of the highlighted boxes that focus on nursing diagnoses and nursing interventions classification (NIC) activities. Boxes also emphasize points related to patient education, pharmacology, patient history, and collaborative practice. Multiple additional online student and instructor resources are also available through the Evolve Learning System. This is a useful resource (in a very crowded field) for undergraduate students venturing into critical care nursing practice.