Transforming Nurses' Stress and Anger, Steps Toward Healing (2nd ed.), by Sandra P. Thomas. New York, NY, Springer Publishing Co, 2004. 318 pages, softcover, $36.95.

This author probes wisely and deeply into the causes of discrimination, frustration, and discord in nursing practice. The many frustrating situations that emerge from the roles needed to be played to provide nursing care are examined in a useful and penetrating way.

The lack of a single entry level, as existing in the other health professions because of the lack of uniformity, leads to mixed expectations and stress between nurse types. Moreover, nurses do not reflect the population because they do not have the same ratio of minorities and men that exists in most work populations. This increases the stress level further, leading to difficulty in handling patients and other professional populations.

To make the best approach possible, in this book, the core issue is divided in to the following broad areas and are discussed in detail: (1) uncovering the layers of nurses' stress and anger (four chapters) and (2) connecting with others (two chapters) and (3) healing ourselves (three chapters) and (4) claiming our power and using it (three chapters).

The epilogue is useful in knowing what is necessary to ensure progress of the nurses and the moral imperative to propose strategies for channeling nurses' anger into positive interventions especially, as the world population becomes much more mixed by migration and by intermarriage. The nursing profession will need to reflect the same affirmative interaction, as that is the law of the land, to move steadily with the major population in a progressive pattern and to ensure the attraction of desirable students. The data show that nurses do not comply with affirmative action in recruiting students.