ADVANCED PRACTICE NURSING
Chosen by Sally Campoy, MS, RN, CNN, C-ANP, adult nurse practitioner, Eastern Colorado Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Denver, CO
1. Advanced Practice Nursing: Emphasizing Common Roles
Edited by Joan M. Stanley. 2nd edition. Philadelphia, F.A. Davis.
This invaluable resource for new and established advanced practice nurses offers practical advice, historical perspective, and analyses of current issues and predicted trends for this specialty.
* Describes roles in the context of practice, policy, legal, and ethical issues
* Demonstrates integration of theory and practice through studies
* Includes outlines, objectives, and thought-provoking questions in each chapter
2. Palliative Practices: An Interdisciplinary Approach
By Kim M. Kuebler, Mellar P. Davis, and Crystal Dea Moore. St. Louis, Mosby.
This comprehensive reference discusses multidisciplinary patient and family-centered care and outlines practical strategies for a disease-specific approach to palliative care.
* Reviews physical, psychological, and spiritual issues with a holistic approach
* Details end-of-life care unique to each disease process
* Includes learning objectives, a case study, and study questions in each chapter
3. Nurse Practitioner Certification Examination and Practice Preparation
By Margaret A. Fitzgerald. 2nd edition. Philadelphia, F.A. Davis.
This detailed study guide discusses body systems, health promotion and disease prevention, pediatrics, and child-bearing, and can be used as a resource for established nurse practitioners.
* Approaches with practicality the primary care issues commonly seen in practice
* Augments content with tables, resources, and evidence-based guidelines
* Includes strategies for taking the certification examination
COMMUNITY & PUBLIC HEALTH
Chosen by Susan Letvak, PhD, RN, assistant professor of nursing, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
1. Caring for the Vulnerable: Perspectives in Nursing Theory, Practice, and Research
Edited by Mary de Chesnay. Sudbury, MA, Jones and Bartlett.
This timely and well-organized text provides a broad understanding of vulnerable groups and their health care needs from theoretical, research, practice, and policy perspectives.
* Provides useful text for community nursing or family nurse practitioner courses
* Focuses on the aggregate view of vulnerable populations as well as individual and group needs
* Includes contributions from an international panel of nursing and health scholars
2. Real World Community Health Nursing: An Interactive CD-ROM
By Patty J. Hale. 2nd edition. St. Louis, Mosby.
This CD-ROM and companion resource book encourages student learning through 40 interactive activities and includes care studies, crossword puzzles, Web links, and real-world simulations.
* Addresses 12 concepts crucial to community and public health nursing
* Offers interactive comparison feature for air, water, and soil quality
* Provides activities that require students to prioritize nursing care
3. Community and Nurse-Managed Health Centers: Getting Them Started and Keeping Them Going (A National Nursing Centers Consortium Guide)
By Donna L. Torrisi and Tine Hansen-Turton. New York City, Springer.
These authors, experienced in operating community-based organizations, offer a wealth of information for starting and managing a health center.
* Stresses partnership with the community served by the health care center
* Provides information on funding opportunities and quality assurance guidelines
* Includes start-up tool kit, job descriptions, and sample strategic plans
CONSUMER HEALTH PUBLICATIONS
Chosen by Nancy Evans, BS, health science consultant, San Francisco
1. When a Parent Has Cancer: A Guide to Caring for Your Children
By Wendy S. Harpham. New York City, Harper Paperbacks.
This practical, comforting book offers honest and sympathetic advice to parents about how to talk with children about cancer and death and how to meet children's needs while taking care of themselves.
* Offers advice based on author's experience with cancer
* Includes Becky and the Worry Cup, a companion book about cancer written from a child's perspective
* Features a glossary for children and an appendix
2. What Are Old People For? How Elders Will Save the World
By William H. Thomas. Acton, MA, VanderWyk & Burnham.
This optimistic book draws on historical and contemporary examples of successful aging, offers a new paradigm for what it means to be "old," and provides guidance for the creation of a society where aging and the elderly are viewed as beneficial to the community.
* Offers an alternative to today's ageism and our mostly dismal attempts at long-term care
* Identifies how to change negative attitudes about aging
* Uses quotations liberally
3. Living with Chronic Pain: The Complete Health Guide to the Causes and Treatment of Chronic Pain
By Jennifer P. Schneider. Long Island City, NY, Healthy Living Books.
This clear, understandable, and comprehensive guide explains the symptoms, causes, and treatment options for chronic pain and encourages patients to become self-advocates when their pain is inadequately controlled.
* Discusses causes of chronic pain as well as drug and alternative treatments
* Brings clinical information to life with first-person narratives
* Analyzes the effect of personality on patient response and coping mechanisms to pain
CRITICAL CARE NURSING
Chosen by A. Elaine Bond, DNSc, APRN, CCRN, associate professor, College of Nursing, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
1. Synergy for Clinical Excellence: The AACN Synergy Model for Patient Care
Edited by Sonya R. Hardin and Roberta Kaplow. Sudbury, MA, Jones and Bartlett.
This reference for caring for critically ill patients offers fresh insights into bedside nursing and guides the reader through the interrelationship of nurse competencies and patient outcomes.
* Tracks the history and development of the nurse-patient dynamic
* Contains reflective exercises for nurses
* Uses case studies to demonstrate how patient and nurse interactions affect outcomes
2. AACN Procedure Manual for Critical Care
Edited by Debra J. Lynn-McHale Wiegand and Karen K. Carlson. 5th edition. St. Louis, Saunders.
This well-organized resource explains procedures in a detailed, step-by-step format, including prerequisite nursing knowledge, equipment, patient and family education, and patient assessment and preparation.
* Addresses procedures performed by advanced practice nurses
* Includes helpful lists, tables, diagrams, and pictures
* Includes expected and unexpected outcomes in each section
3. Practical Guide to Moderate Sedation/Analgesia
By Jan Odom-Forren and Donna Watson. 2nd edition. St. Louis, Mosby.
This book demonstrates administration techniques, discusses patient complications, emergencies, and legal issues, and provides an overview of nursing's historic role in the use of sedation medications.
* Provides guidance for effective sedation use in critical care patients
* Offers detailed discussion of sedation medication in pharmacology chapter
* Addresses patient populations, including pediatric, geriatric, and mechanically ventilated patients
ELECTRONIC MEDIA
Chosen by Kim W. Hoover, PhD, RN, associate dean for academic program development and evaluation, School of Nursing, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, and Mary W. Stewart, PhD, RN, dean, Joseph and Nancy Fail School of Nursing, William Carey College, Hattiesburg, MS
1. AACN Clinical Simulations in Critical Care Nursing: Cases and Tutorials in Renal and Gastrointestinal Dysfunctions (CD-ROM)
Edited by Christy Price, Michael Day, and Rhonda Milam. Philadelphia, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
This resource is useful to both RNs and nursing students in learning how to manage patients with renal and gastrointestinal dysfunction.
* Provides opportunity for application through use of tutorials and case studies
* Details information about complex systems
* Includes interactive options and uses multiple instructional strategies
2. SimClinic: Interactive Cases: Primary Care (CD-ROM)
By Diana Mertens and Jason Underwood. St. Louis, Mosby.
This CD-ROM follows the format of popular simulation games and allows the user to interactively complete a vertical physical examination.
* Shows ways to practice vertical diagrams and treatment
* Uses images and audio clips to enhance presentation
* Compares user's findings with expert reviews
3. Professor Nightengale's Test-Taking Strategies for Student Nurses (CD-ROM)
By Maureen Hreha, Dan Peters, Carol Patterson, and Sarah R. Lee. Philadelphia, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
This CD-ROM offers a variety of excellent test-taking strategies and problem-solving techniques as well as suggestions to identify test-taking deficits and improve exam scores.
* Includes videos, animations, and interactive questions
* Provides information in a timely manner on new alternate-format NCLEX questions
GERONTOLOGIC NURSING
Chosen by Carole E. Deitrich, MS, RN, APRN, BC, gerontological nurse practitioner and clinical professor, School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco
1. Gerontological Nursing and Healthy Aging
By Priscilla Ebersole, Patricia Hess, Theris Touhy, and Kathleen Jett. 2nd edition. St. Louis, Mosby.
This comprehensive text reflects current changes in gerontological nursing and covers a range of issues from empathic to pragmatic, both psychological and physiologic, as well as personal, family, community, and global influences on caring for older adults.
* Updates information on cognitive impairment that reflects numerous types of dementias
* Lists charts, guidelines, protocols, and assessment tools inside the front cover
* Includes study questions, glossary, list of resources, and an online supplement for instructor use
2. Burnside's Working with Older Adults: Group Process and Techniques
Edited by Barbara Haight and Faith Gibson. 4th edition. Sudbury, MA, Jones and Bartlett.
This book instructs nurses how to guide relationship building for older adults in community settings by recognizing opportunities for group work, understanding its benefits, and providing hands-on assistance to start and maintain groups.
* Provides nonmedical, nonpharmacological solutions to problems of older adults
* Helps providers of different disciplines and levels of care
* Includes a variety of groups, settings, instructions for group development
3. Guide to Culturally Competent Health Care
By Larry D. Purnell and Betty J. Paulanka. Philadelphia, F.A. Davis.
This pocket-size handbook reviews important cultural issues nurses need to consider when caring for patients, such as mourning, spirituality, and making decisions for an elderly family member.
* Includes sample questions and cultural norms for 26 eth-nocultural groups
* Offers list of appropriate questions to ask patients
* Demonstrates cultural competence from the perspectives of society, family, and the individual
HISTORY & PUBLIC POLICY
Chosen by Sally S. Cohen, PhD, RN, FAAN, associate professor and director, Center for Health Policy and Ethics, Yale University School of Nursing, New Haven, CT
1. Nursing Workforce Development: Strategic State Initiatives
Edited by Brenda Cleary and Rebecca Rice. New York City, Springer.
This collection of compelling and well-written essays offers valuable information for nurses seeking to influence state, regional, and institutional workforce poli cies.
* Includes information about leadership development, work environment, and curriculum for graduate programs
* Synthesizes ideas through scholarly work
* Provides a balanced view between historical and current information
2. Dying to Be Beautiful: The Fight for Safe Cosmetics
By Gwen Kay. Columbus, OH, Ohio State University Press.
This fascinating account discusses the experiences, perseverance, and brilliance of the women and grassroots activists who fought for legislation to regulate cosmetics in the early 20th century.
* Examines the Food and Drug Administration's role in regulating cosmetics
* Demonstrates excellence in well-documented citations
* Narrates facts in a compelling manner
3. Florence Nightingale Today: Healing, Leadership, Global Action
By Barbara Montgomery Dossey, Louise C. Selanders, Deva-Marie Beck, and Alex Attewell. Silver Spring, MD, American Nurses Association.
The authors combine history, clinical nursing, public health issues, and analyses of Florence Nightingale's personality in this journey into her life; her passion for nursing; and her commitment to healing the body, mind, and spirit.
* Includes mysticism and its role in Nightingale's life
* Incorporates content relevant to nursing scholars, students, and leaders
* Includes numerous photos, graphics, and pictures
MATERNAL-CHILD NURSING & CHILDBIRTH
Chosen by Anita J. Catlin, DNSc, FNP, FAAN, associate professor of nursing, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA
1. Counseling the Nursing Mother: A Lactation Consultant's Guide
By Judith Lauwers and Anna Swisher. 4th edition. Sudbury, MA, Jones and Bartlett.
This thoughtful book combines theory, practice, ethics, and science, and is comprehensive enough to act as a review text for certification as an international lactation consultant.
* Offers preventive guidance as opposed to crisis intervention
* Includes information about postpartum depression
* Describes the process of creating a consultation practice
2. Maternal-Neonatal Facts Made Incredibly Quick!!
By Springhouse. Philadelphia, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
This helpful book reviews basic information on prenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, and neonatal care, and includes several "how to" descriptions, such as where to insert transducers for internal monitoring.
* Includes laboratory values for pregnant women and neonates
* Offers wipe-on surface for personal notation
* Fits in nurse's pocket
3. Family Health Care Nursing: Theory, Practice and Research
By Shirley May Harmon Hanson, Vivian Gedaly-Duff, and Joanna Rowe Kaakinen. 3rd edition. Philadelphia, F.A. Davis.
This overview of contemporary issues in family nursing includes discussions about home schooling, military families, transracial adoption, and children with incarcerated parents, as well as practical tools such as the genogram, the Calgary Assessment Model, and the Friedman Family Assessment Model.
* Includes updated information on genetics
* Includes an extensive list of family-resource Web sites
* Offers numerous graphs, statistics, and predictions
MEDICAL-SURGICAL NURSING
Chosen by Judy Morgan, MSN, RN, full-time faculty member, Kent State University, Kent, OH, and PRN at Mercy Medical Center, Canton, OH
1. Mastering ACLS
By Springhouse. 2nd edition. Philadelphia, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
This book is an excellent reference for reviewing advanced cardiac life support skills through color illustrations, bulleted lists, and descriptions of different techniques as well as study and test-taking strategies.
* Emphasizes key points in sidebars
* Includes information pertinent to nurses, such as mixing instructions for drugs
* Contains multiple-choice quizzes
2. Clinical Calculations: With Applications to General and Specialty Areas
By Joyce LeFever Kee and Sally M. Marshall. 5th edition. St. Louis, Saunders.
This book discusses medication safety when administered to general populations as well as in specialty units, including critical care, labor and delivery, and pediatrics.
* Combines CD-ROM with text
* Provides dosage calculation methods
* Gives comprehensive information on infusion pumps
3. Nurse's Quick Check: Fluids and Electrolytes
By Springhouse. Philadelphia, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
This quick two-part reference provides basic information about fluids and electrolytes and descriptions of imbalances including pathophysiology, causes, and complications.
* Includes information about patient assessment and testing
* Organizes material by diagnosis
* Includes information about herbal effects on fluid and electrolyte balance
NURSING EDUCATION & CONTINUING EDUCATION
Chosen by Sue Boos, MS, RN, ARNP, CNS, associate professor, department of nursing, Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS
1. Educating Nurses for Leadership
Edited by Harriet R. Feldman and Martha J. Greenberg. New York City, Springer.
This book emphasizes ways to foster professional leadership by integrating leadership skills into professional practice, achieving higher levels of critical thinking, and focusing on the growing quality of leadership knowledge and literature.
* Uses annotated bibliography for literature published in the past five years
* Demonstrates a variety of teaching strategies for students, practitioners, nurse educators, and administrators
* Features well-respected and credentialed authors
2. Nursing Against the Odds: How Health Care Cost Cutting, Media Stereotypes, and Medical Hubris Undermine Nurses and Patient Care
By Suzanne Gordon. Ithaca, NY, ILR Press.
This eye-opening book, written by a journalist who has made a career of observing and reporting on nursing, suggests that nursing as a profession is invisible, poorly portrayed in the media, and ignored in the politics of health care-the causes of which may lie within the profession itself.
* Explores staffing ratios, scheduling, pay scales, and recruitment and retention policies with thought-provoking suggestions
* Uses meticulous research as basis for engaging narrative
* Provides an opportunity to address dilemmas within the nursing profession
3. Critical Thinking TACTICS for Nurses: Tracking, Assessing, and Cultivating Thinking to Improve Competency-Based Strategies
By M. Gaie Rubenfeld and Barbara K. Scheffer. Sudbury, MA, Jones and Bartlett.
Thile the disagreement over whether critical thinking can be taught continues, this book offers practical learning and teaching strategies that can be implemented in academic and clinical settings, as well as inservice and continuing education classes.
* Uses cartoons, checklists, and reflection to illustrate concepts
* Incorporates a variety of practical examples and learning strategies
* Uses multidisciplinary research and literature
NURSING MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP
Chosen by Anne W. Wojner-Alexandrov, PhD, CCRN, FAAN, president, Health Outcomes Institute, and clinical professor and assistant director at the Center for Advancement of Evidence-Based Practice, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
1. Nursing Management: Principles and Practice
By Mary Magee Gullatte. Pittsburgh, Oncology Nursing Society.
This outstanding resource for nurses in or seeking management and leadership positions discusses leadership development, staff development, management principles and practice, and financial management.
* Focuses significantly on intrapersonal leadership development
* Addresses skills for competent management
* Includes management tools and sample letters
2. Organizational Behavior in Health Care
Edited by Nancy Borkowski. Sudbury, MA, Jones and Bartlett.
This reference explains how leadership self-reflection and the acquisition of diverse leadership skills for complex health care management situations can lead to an improved and satisfactory workplace.
* Provides theoretical and practical approaches to help understand organizational dynamics
* Discusses both individual and group behaviors
3. The Quantum Leader: Applications for the New World of Work
By Kathy Malloch and Tim Porter-O'Grady. Sudbury, MA, Jones and Bartlett.
This book discusses current and potential workforce dynamics and demonstrates how leadership skill sets are necessary for successful workplace culture and performance.
* Discusses stages of management and provides theoretical and practical management applications
* Offers ways to resolve conflict
NURSING RESEARCH
Chosen by Marsha E. Fonteyn, PhD, RN, nurse scientist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston
1. Contemporary Nursing Knowledge: Analysis and Evaluation of Nursing Models and Theories
By Jacqueline Fawcett. 2nd edition. Philadelphia, F.A. Davis.
This highly organized resource details the development and evolution of theoretical models supported by direct quotes from the theorists, an abundance of references, and up-to-date information.
* Includes details about conceptual models and nursing theory
* Offers a comprehensive interactive bibliography in supplemental CD-ROM
* Uses boldface type, bulleted lists, figures, and tables
2. Measurement in Nursing and Health Research
By Carolyn Feher Waltz, Ora Lea Strickland, and Elizabeth R. Lenz. 3rd edition. New York City, Springer.
This book provides current information about all aspects of measurement, including qualitative, quantitative, and physiologic measures; about conceptual models; and measures the use of the Internet as a measurement instrument.
* Facilitates understanding of concepts and principles with figures, graphics, and tables
* Explains difficult measurement principles clearly
* Provides numerous software and health data resources in appendix
3. Caring Science as Sacred Science
By Jean Watson. Philadelphia, F.A. Davis.
This compelling and inspirational book uniquely blends science, theory, poetry, and imagery from real-life stories to link the science of nursing to its foundation of compassion.
* Clarifies abstract concepts and explicates the principles of science
* Uses small figures, tables, and bulleted lists to promote understanding
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & ISSUES
Chosen by Dana N. Rutledge, PhD, RN, associate professor, and Paula Herberg, PhD, RN, associate professor and chair, department of nursing, California State University, Fullerton
1. The Art of Becoming a Nurse Healer
By Beverly A. Hall. Bandido Books, Orlando, FL.
The author, a psychiatric nurse and medical sociologist, contemplates the nature of nursing practice by discussing her own experiences and suggesting ways to aid communication and interpersonal relations.
* Includes discussion of issues related to the art and science of nursing
* Uses intriguing, well-written narrative
* Presents thoughtful study questions in each chapter
2. Nursing Against the Odds: How Health Care Cost Cutting, Media Stereotypes, and Medical Hubris Undermine Nurses and Patient Care
By Suzanne Gordon. Ithaca, NY, ILR Press.
This book's accurate and contemporary view of nursing and the challenges nurses confront should stimulate discussion of the future of nursing.
* Incorporates valuable outsider's perspective on nursing issues
* Analyzes barriers facing nursing
* Nonacademic writing style is clear and compelling
3. Nursing Workforce Development: Strategic State Initiatives
Edited by Brenda Cleary and Rebecca Rice. New York City, Springer.
This book gives a historical perspective of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Colleagues in Caring Project (1996-2003) and offers practical insights into issues that affect regional collaborative groups, the nursing profession, and health care.
* Details the minimum data set for a workforce initiative
* Describes models used by regional collaboratives to collect data
* Describes experiences with different collaborative groups
PSYCHIATRIC-MENTAL HEALTH NURSING
Chosen by V. Jude Forbes, MSN, RN, BC, FNP-C, a family nurse practitioner at Correctional Managed Care Psychiatric Services, University of Texas Medical Branch, Austin
1. Clinical Handbook of Psychotropic Drugs
Edited by Kalyna Z. Bezchlibnyk-Butler and J. Joel Jefferies. 15th edition. Cambridge, MA, Hogrefe and Huber.
This comprehensive and well-organized handbook houses current information about each drug category and provides matrices that address issues including adverse effects, dosages, contraindi-cations, and targeted symptoms.
* Contains evidence-based information on substance abuse and complementary and alternative treatments
* Makes information easily understood for all health care practitioners
* Includes patient handouts
2. PsychNotes: Clinical Pocket Guide
By Darlene D. Pedersen. Philadelphia, F.A. Davis.
This clever pocket guide includes discussions of theories of development, adaptive responses, biopsychosocial aspects of mental health, and legal aspects of providing care, as well as standard and population-specific assessment tools.
* Lists differential diagnoses and assessment forms
* Discusses common psychotropic medications including half-life, interactions, and adverse reactions
3. Principles and Practice of Psychiatric Nursing
By Gail W. Stuart and Michele T. Laraia. 8th edition. St. Louis, Mosby.
This text does a fabulous job of presenting theory, application, and evaluation of psychiatric nursing using case studies, interviews with patients and families, and critical-thinking questions.
* Includes real-life experiences of psychiatric nurses
* Offers evidence-based studies, patient and family education plans, and nursing treatment plans
* Includes animations and NCLEX review questions on supplemental CD-ROM
PUBLIC INTEREST & CREATIVE WORKS
Chosen by Raymond J. Bingham, RNC, technical writer and editor, National Institute of Nursing Research, Montgomery Village, MD
1. Leopold's Maneuvers
By Cortney Davis. Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska Press.
These poems display a nurse's observations and sensitivities by examining love, relationships, and the life of the body.
* Offers clear, evocative poetry
* Observes nursing with a fresh and creative voice
* Takes a realistic and harsh approach, but is ultimately uplifting and optimistic
2. Nursing Against the Odds: How Health Care Cost Cutting, Media Stereotypes, and Medical Hubris Undermine Nurses and Patient Care
By Suzanne Gordon. Ithaca, NY, ILR Press.
This thorough and well-researched book examines the current state of the nursing profession including nursing's history, the development of the nurse-physician relationship, and the effect of health industry reorganization.
* Covers many aspects of the nursing profession and work-place thoroughly
* Describes the effects of health care reorganization on patient care and nursing workload
* Describes in a thorough manner how nurses deal with common and complex situations
3. Cooked: An Inner City Nursing Memoir
By Carol Karels. 2nd edition. Hackensack, NJ, Arcania Press, a division of Tech-Repro, Inc.
The author provides a striking firsthand account of hospital conditions in the 1970s at Cook County Hospital and describes her reasons for entering nursing school, the living conditions she experienced, and her clinical experience.
* Describes nursing care and hospital conditions with a firsthand, honest approach
* Depicts nurses as decision-makers involved in diagnosis, treatment, and care
* Describes hardships and rewards of student life, patient care, and the respect of coworkers