LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT SKILLS FOR LONG-TERM CARE

Eileen M. Sullivan-Marx, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, RN, Deanna Gray-Miceli, DNSc, APRN, FAANP (Editors), New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2008, Softcover, ISBN: 978-082615993-9, 223 pages, US$50.00.

* Reviewed by:

Cindy A. Shemansky, MEd, RN-BC, LNHA, FNGNA

Director of Education, Masonic Home of New Jersey

Burlington, New Jersey

Nursing is a caring profession focused on assisting individuals and families in attaining and maintaining optimal health and functioning. During a professional nurse's training, learning is focused on the skills needed to achieve this goal. All too often, nursing training lacks courses on leadership and management skills, yet nurses find themselves thrust into these roles, especially in long-term care (LTC) settings. This book was written to provide a resource for nurses in these settings, and the content was tested then revised based on LTC nurse participant evaluations.

The book is divided into seven chapters. The first chapter provides an overview and an introduction on how to use the modules. Chapters 2 to 7 cover important leadership topics such as team building, communication, power and negotiation, change theory and process, cultural competence, and leading through education. The book was written so that it can be used by learners or educators. Chapters 2 to 7 contain pretests and posttests, objectives, content, case studies, and evaluations. These chapters also apply the American Association of Colleges of Nursing geriatric competencies to the topic discussed. Digital supplements containing PowerPoint slides, tests, and evaluations are available from the publisher's Web site.

Overall, the book provides needed information on leadership and management skills for nurses working in LTC settings. It will be very helpful to those responsible for training in these settings as the objectives, content, tests, and evaluation tools are provided. The PowerPoint slides from Chapters 2, 4, 5, and 7 are detailed and will assist in providing effective sessions on the content. However, slides from Chapters 3 and 6 contain minimal content information and will need further development and enhancement by the educator. The ending slide in Chapter 3 references case studies; however, no case studies were found in the text on Chapter 3. In general, the PowerPoint slides are not uniform in transition, clipart, or length, and not all slide modules provide a summarization of points. The material would be enhanced by the addition of case studies in each chapter and the inclusion of case studies, the self-scoring behavioral style assessment tool, and the geriatric competencies in the digital supplements. As an educator in LTC, I would use this resource for teaching, with some modification of the digital supplements.