Advanced Practice Nursing: Essentials for Role Development

Lucille A. Joel, RN, EdD, APNC, FAAN. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company, 681 pp, $49.95.

This scholarly text is co-authored by 43 nurse experts who share their experience, insight, and commitment to advanced practice nursing (APN). Though the master's level student in advanced practice is the target audience, the book also provides information about the professional role that is of interest to practicing APNs.

Unit 1 explores the APN's historical beginnings and moves through the evolution of roles to the contemporary specialties: nurse midwife, nurse anesthetist, clinical nurse specialist, and nurse practitioner (NP). The unit describes new and creative roles that have developed in response to societal needs, from the acute care NP to the psychiatric NP.

Unit 2 addresses practice environment issues that affect parameters of role enactment - for example, reimbursement, prescriptive authority, clinical privileges, malpractice insurance, and material resource management. The ensuing chapters introduce strategies APNs employ to assure competency in providing safe, skilled, therapeutic health care; examine how APN performance can be measured; and discuss cost efficiency.

Study questions follow each chapter, in addition to Web site resources and reference lists. These supplemental materials make this an excellent nonclinical text for role development or leadership courses, and a useful reference for those already practicing.