JCN reviews and briefs books and other media resources as a service to our readers. We do not sell or profit financially from these books. Prices quoted are the original publisher's price. Book Briefs are short synopses based on the publisher's descriptions. Websites were current and evaluated at the time of publication.
Nursing
COMPASSIONATE CARE
Nursing's Christian Legacy
By Judith Allen Shelly
56 pp., 2 DVDs, 1 CD, Madison, WI: NCF Press, 2010, $50.00, spiral bound.
Review: In Compassionate Care, Shelly, a well-known nurse author, provides a DVD series and workbook, with continuing education option, that helps students, educators, and nurses explore the influence of Christian faith on contemporary nursing practice and outcomes of care.
The video workshop includes six teaching sessions on two DVDs and a workbook. The series includes all materials for either individual or small group use. Educators or conference planners will find this a helpful resource for students or nurses pursuing additional education. Six contact hours of continuing education are available from Nurses Christian Fellowship (not included in the price of the package). Power Point presentations enhance the teaching and offer topics for discussion. See http://www.ncf-jcn.org/publications/video/cc.php for more information.
Compassionate Care is based on the book, Called to Care: A Christian Worldview for Nursing, by Judith Allen Shelly and Arlene B. Miller (InterVarsity Press, 2006). This book is strongly recommended as an accompanying text to provide additional content, ideas for personal reflection, and small group discussion questions.-CW
HOW TO SURVIVE CLINICAL
Advice From the Nursing Students and Teachers Who Have Been There
By Diann L. Martin
208 pp., New York: Kaplan, 2008, $12.95, paperback.
Review: This is a quick read that provides helpful advice to the prospective nurse. I wish I had read this book early on when I was starting nursing school. It includes useful tips and quotes from real nursing instructors and students. I would have gained a lot by reading this during the first semester and approached my classes and clinicals with more confidence. There is a chapter on organization that I particularly liked with advice I am going to make use of even in my last semester. The thing I liked most about the book is that it includes various learning strategies from different people so you are bound to find advice that would fit the type of learner you are. I definitely recommend this book to new nursing students.-Kristoffer Sarinas Javier, nursing student, University of Illinois at Chicago.
JILL LEARNS ABOUT NURSES AROUND THE TOWN
By Cynthia Thomas and Sarah Patterson
44 pp., Brownsburg, IN: Author, 2008, free (postage required), paperback.
Review: This is a delightful children's storybook written by Thomas, a nurse, and designed and illustrated by Patterson. Thomas wrote the book after she sensed God was leading her to help recruit children into nursing (see "Promoting Nursing Careers Using a Storybook for Children," pp. 258-261). The book is colorful and engaging, asking the young reader fun questions like, "Can you feel your pulse?" I love that Thomas introduces children to varied nursing careers-hospital, school, nursing education, home health, long-term care, parish nursing, advanced practice, and occupational health nursing. I wish I'd had this book when my children were young (I may still ask them to read it).
Jill Learns About Nurses Around the Town cannot be purchased at this time. Sample pages are available as supplemental digital content at http://links.lww.com/NCF-JCN/A4. To obtain a copy send a self-addressed 10 inch 13 standard U.S. post office manila mailer pre-posted for $2.00 to: Nursing Storybook Request, 10387 Pineway Drive, Brownsburg, IN 46112.
I hope a children's publisher prints and makes this book widely available around the country!!-KSS
MISSIONS
FRIENDSHIP AT THE MARGINS
Discovering Mutuality in Service and Mission
By Christopher L. Heuertz and Christine D. Pohl
160 pp., Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2010, $15.00, paperback.
Brief:Friendship at the Margins offers a call to reinvigorate our practice of true friendship as central to Christian mission. Chris Heuertz, international director of Word Made Flesh, and theologian and ethicist Christine Pohl show how friendship is a Christian vocation that can bring reconciliation and healing to our broken world. They contend that unlikely friendships are at the center of an alternative paradigm for mission, where people are not objectified as potential converts but encountered in a relationship of mutuality and reciprocity. Heuertz and Pohl's reflections offer fresh insight into Christian mission and what it means to be the church in the world today.-KSS