Outcome Assessment in Advanced Practice Nursing, edited by Ruth M. Kleinpell, New York, Springer Publishing, 2001. 258 pages, hardcover, $42.95.

This book on advanced practice has nine chapters covering differing areas of specialization with 13 contributors from various major settings. Each chapter clearly and carefully reviews the data regarding the differences in effect on patients given by nurses with advanced practice preparation.

Uniformly, the scientific evaluations show that nurses with advanced practice skills have positive effects on patient care and their outcomes. Nurses are not only compared to other nurses but also with physicians, interns, and fourth-year medical students. In each case, the advanced practice skills have held their own or improved on the care rendered by others. In most studies, this care was more consistent and more comprehensive as compared to nurses without this richer preparation.

The rigor by which the data were gathered, as well as the high quality of the outcomes, raises the question of how effective all the nursing care of patients might be if all nurses had this level of preparation and abilities. It is not difficult to conclude how professional nurses would be evaluated by members of the other clinical professions and by patients if this level of preparation was required as the minimum for all nurses. Nurses who read this text may be stimulated to acquire this level of competence and thus increase the desired numbers in this category to ensure more effective care.