nursing ebooks

Nursing E-Books

Careers in Nursing

Expert guidance on exploring and choosing a professional career Ideal for college-bound students or anyone thinking about making a career change, this series offers information needed to explore and choose a profession and then narrow it down to a job that suits them. Each book details the responsibilities, education and training required, and ..

Neonatal Intensive Care Nursing

This user-friendly text enables nurses to recognise, rationalise and remedy the common problems using both a multi-systems and evidence based approach.

Nursing Documentation in Aged Care

Overview Nursing documentation is often perceived as a tiresome chore. Although this perception of documentation is understandable, Nursing Documentation in Aged Care: A Guide to Practice is written from a different perspective. The title of the book is carefully chosen. All of the contributors to this book firmly believe that nursing documentation in aged care - if performed with pride and professionalism - is truly a guide to practice. In striving for the highest standards of professionalism in all that they do, nurses are increasingly recognising that documentation is a wonderful opportunity to record and reflect upon all that is good in nursing. In addition to their ethical and professional responsibilities, caring nurses are aware of the personal satisfaction to be gained from documenting their holistic and reflective nursing practice. This book shows how nursing assessments, care plans, and progress notes can allow nurses to share their knowledge, observations, and skills - and thus make a crucial contribution to their own professional lives and to the quality of life of those in their care. This is more than a 'how-to-do-it' workbook. With contributions from a range of experts, this comprehensive evidence-based textbook explores the issues surrounding documentation and reveals the importance of professional communication within multidisciplinary teams.

Palliative Care Nursing

Foreword - Dr Susie Wilkinson Palliative Care Nursing: A Guide to Practice addresses palliative care from a nursing perspective, and will assist nurses in a variety of settings to care for people and their families with confidence and competence. Written in the main by nurses, the book presents the expertise that the contributing authors have gathered over many years of practical experience in clinical practice, backed by extensive research and an awareness of the relevant nursing and medical literature. The book is a tribute to all the contributing authors. This book offers all nurses an evidence-based approach to handling the many difficult scenarios faced by nurses who care for dying people and their families. The World Health Organization definition of palliative care (WHO 2002) emphasises, for the first time, the importance of �impeccable assessment� in the provision of high-quality palliative care. Each chapter of Palliative Care Nursing gives nurses detailed guidelines for making in-depth assessments to elicit the patients� problems, followed by relevant advice to enable them to plan effective care. Palliative care is now accepted as an important aspect of health care by an increasing number of government health departments and by health professionals all over the world. For nurses worldwide who are contributing to new palliative-care services, as well as for those working in established service settings, this book is a must. It is an authoritative text on palliative-care nursing, and will provide up-to-date knowledge and ideas for enhancing the care that nurses provide in assisting people achieve a peaceful dignified death, and in caring for their families and loved ones. I have great pleasure in commending this excellent book.

Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery

Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery from vision to practice speaks to nurses and midwives about the integration of complementary therapies into practice.There are currently a number of books on complementary therapies in nursing and midwifery practice, but they generally place strong emphasis on describing specific therapies.The approach in this book is to bring to life for the reader the realities of attempting to integrate complementary therapies into practice.The book consists of three sections, which together cover issues of current interest, selected therapies, and examples of how complementary therapies were introduced into four different workplace settings. Consequently, there is a strong focus on areas that deal with professional, political and workplace concerns such as education, policy, research, and successful strategies for the introduction of complementary therapies. For the practitioner starting out, this book will provide the information needed to argue their case clearly and constructively; up-to-date references on research and significant articles; inspirational stories by nurses and midwives who have successfully pioneered the integration of complementary therapies; the strategies they used; ideas for beginners in research; useful tips for developing policy; clarification of legal concerns, and much more. Complementary therapies in nursing and midwifery from vision to practice will provide nurses and midwives interested in complementary care with essential background and current information concerning this exciting new area of interest.The book is divided into three sections. Section One covers the historical, political and professional issues relating to complementary therapies. Section Two discusses selected complementary therapies and Section Three gives examples of successful integration of complementary therapies in four practice settings.

Aged Care Nursing

Overview Care of the aged has a long and noble history within the nursing profession. Respect for the dignity of the elderly and a commitment to their well-being have inspired generations of nurses. But it is only in more recent times that aged-care nursing has really 'come of age' with the provision of sound evidence-based nursing practice. The traditional ethical approach to aged-care nursing has thus become combined with sound scientific knowledge in a modern holistic model of care. Aged Care Nursing: A Guide to Practice is written by clinicians for clinicians. Each chapter describes contemporary nursing practice in a specific area of aged care. The inclusion of evidence-based and outcome-based practices throughout the book ensures that all readers, be they novices or experts, will have a reliable and beneficial reference to guide their practice. The chapter authors are from several countries, and the content of each chapter is presented generically to ensure international applicability. Each author is a recognised expert in his or her subject area, and all present their topics with a focus that is practical, rather than academic.

High-Dependency Nursing: Observation, Intervention and Support

High dependent patients are nursed in many different areas. High Dependency Nursing Care is a textbook for nurses caring for patients requiring more detailed observation or intervention. This includes those patients needing support for a single failing organ system or post-operative care and those stepping down from higher levels of care. It is written especially for nurses undertaking post-registration courses to prepare them for this role. Written by a team of nurses experienced in providing, supporting and developing high dependency care, the authors discuss the main diseases causing critical illness and their treatments, the monitoring and skills needed in the associated nursing care, and the professional issues that arise from this type of nursing. All treatments and nursing care are examined in the light of the current evidence-base for clinical practice. High Dependency Nursing Care is divided into four parts, Perspectives for High Dependency Care, Pathophysiology and Treatments, Monitoring Skills and Professional Issues. Each of the 36 chapters includes: · key objectives· core information and chapter summaries· activities and clinical scenarios· implications for clinical practice· key and further reading The book will be useful for qualified nurses caring for highly dependent patients and for nurses undertaking a range of post-registration courses. The book will also be useful to pre-registration nurses and other healthcare professionals involved in caring for highly dependent patients in a variety of clinical areas.

Dementia Nursing

People are said to �suffer from dementia�. In the 1960s, when I first came into contact with people with dementia, there is no doubt that there was a lot of suffering. �Senile dementia�, as it was known in those days, was considered to be an inevitable consequence of ageing. Residential care took place mostly in asylums for the mentally ill. The overcrowded wards were characterised by long dark corridors that smelt of human excrement and the pervading odour of the favoured drug, paraldehyde. Staff might have been well meaning, but care was purely custodial and reflected attitudes of cynicism and pessimism. Conditions gradually improved, but it was not until 1987 that �senile dementia� was removed from the Mental Health Act of New South Wales. Over the past twenty years there has been a complete revolution in our understanding of dementia, and the ignorance of the 1960s and 1970s has been filed in the archives of past practice. Although there is still no prevention or cure for the diseases that cause dementia, we can now say with confidence that we do know how to care for people with dementia. Today we say that there are �people with dementia� but we do not accept that they have to �suffer� because of it. For each person the journey to �dementia land� is a unique experience. Each person travels it in an individual way. Along that road there are numerous negative forces that are capable of triggering the uncomfortable emotional responses that underlie the unwanted challenging behaviours of dementia. On the other hand, there are many opportunities for people with dementia to enjoy success, to feel safe, and even to have fun. Contemporary care practice recognises that individuals with dementia are unable to identify and avoid pitfalls on their journey. Similarly, they are unable to imagine and seek out their own opportunities for positive emotional moments. Their destiny is in the hands of their caregivers. The practice of successful dementia caregiving is laid out clearly in the pages that follow. This book is a compendium of contemporary dementia care practice. It provides knowledge that is the foundation for a clear path to successful care outcomes. It clearly leaves no room for the ignorance that produced the uncertainty and inconsistency of past practices. If dementia can be likened to a journey of highs and lows, this book shows us how to eliminate the negatives and accentuate the positives.

Renal Nursing

Renal Nursing This book is designed for all renal nurses and for general nurses who care for patients with impaired renal function. Renal disease is on the increase in western society and as a result there is a growing need for well educated renal nurses. This practical book will assist in the development of high quality renal nurses and nurse practitioners. This book offers a practical approach to guide nurses in the art and science of renal care. It is holistic as well as technical, therapeutic and compassionate in its approach. Acute and chronic renal failure, renal osteodystrophy and other selected diseases are comprehensively discussed. The nurse's role with regard to specific treatments such as dialysis, haemodialysis, plasma exchange and haemoperfusion as well as organ transplantation procedures are discussed in detail. There is also a section that relates specifically to paediatric care. The final section of the book is devoted to the use of complementary therapies and alternative medicine in renal disease.