Brian Dolan, MSc(Oxon), MSc(Nurs), BSc(Hons), RMN, RGN, CHSM
Director of Service Improvement and Patient Flow, Canterbury District Health Board, Christchurch, New Zealand; Director, Dolan & Holt Consultancy Ltd., UK; Vice Chair, RCN Emergency Care Association, UK
Lynda Holt, MA, RGN, EN(G), DipHS
Managing Director, Dolan & Holt Consultancy Ltd, UK; Formerly Chair, Royal College of Nursing Accident and Emergency Nursing Association, UK
Bailliere Tindall Elsevier
Edinburgh 2013
ISBN 978-0-7020-4315-4
Type and Scope of Book
This 3rd edition is a introductory comprehensive emergency nursing textbook. The book examines emergency nursing by break it down to specific parts and chapters, grouping common themes. The book uses a different grouping of parts and chapters that distinguishes it from other emergency nursing text books.
Contents
Part 1 Trauma Management
Part 2 Trauma Care
Part 3 Psychological dimensions
Part 4 Life Continuum
Part 5 Physiology for ED practice
Part 6 Emergency care
Part 7 Practical issues
Part 8 Professional issues in the ED
These parts are broken down to 42 chapters.
Strengths
The book has a easy writing style that flows well. This style gets the reader into the book and able to work the way through the chapters. This would make it very readable to the emerging emergency nurse. This is a asset that would help a emerging emergency nurse learn new concepts.
The book uses different groupings of parts and chapters that give the book a different feel to other many similar text books. The groupings did work to pull together the themes of the text. This makes it easy to find themes of interest.
The drawings presented are of high quality and were well labeled. These are referred to in the text to highlight learning points. The are some other interesting drawings that are funny that catch interest. This helps the reader to remember points of learning.
The use of tables and boxes was good. These tables and boxes backed up information from the text. This made the book work on a practical level. The text is easily able to cross referenced to the tables for use.The boxes provide excellent checklists that can be used in clinical practice.
The book not only focuses on clinical information but examines processes fundamental to emergency nursing. The chapters on leadership, triage, ethics, law, health and safety, culture and power and patient flow are helpful and view different approaches that can be useful to solve problems.
Weaknesses
The book leaving wondering what audience it was writing for. Was it for a UK audience or the rest of the world as spoken about in the introduction. There are writers from different countries but the information and epidemiology was very UK focused.
The referencing of information was limited. Big statements are made with just one reference to back these up. More references would make made it more believable to best practice. This may have also decreased the UK focus and bias of information presented.
The book has a physiology section. This is a good idea that started well but the section then lost its way at times. Physiology is a important part of all therapies and the section only examines wound care, pain management and anaesthesia. Many other specialist areas could have been included. Treatments and care that had no physiology reference to were included in these chapters. That was confusing and needed editing.
The life continuum section was again UK focused. It also didn’t always put the highlighted problem in the right years. There was a section on teenagers on methadone that didn’t appear right. Genitourinary trauma and infection as a major theme for young adults is minor compared to other problems this group faces.
Recommended Readership
If this was the first emergency nursing textbook you buy then this is a ideal book. The easy reading style will want you to read it more. The ability to make complex information digestible to the reader is appealing.
The book does cover many of different specialties and themes that the emergency nurse has to practice within. This makes the text a good starting point when attempted to seek best practice information and models of care. A post graduate emergency nursing student would find the book useful for assignment writing and exam preparation.
Overall Rating
This 3rd edition book’s fresh and different approach gives it style that keeps its place in the market. The emerging emergency nurse will benefit from this approach to learning. The book helps stimulate learning in the many different specialties that the emergency nurse has to practice. Dampening of the UK focus and deeper referencing would help improve further editions.