Accident and emergency medicine

Accident and Emergency Nursing enable them to record and update information pertinent to their careers. This portfolio is divided into two sections: Part A, which is concerned with general education, life experiences, professional education and employment, and Part B, which concentrates on current and future developments, critical analysis and curriculum vitae writing. The profile is well laid out, user-friendly and good value at Al2.99. One particular strength is the way it covers, clearly and simply, all aspects of compiling a professional profile-a task which is perhaps alien and indeed daunting to many nurses. Perhaps the CLPP could be improved by using an alternative binding system. The vivid yellow cover is rather gaudy-perhaps navy or black would be more appealing and professional looking. A distinction between Parts A and B on the index tabs would be useful. In summary, the portfolio would certainly be a useful aid to the career development of all health-care professionals and would be of value to Accident and Emergency nurses-although not specifically aimed at them. It allows a variety of nurses at all levels to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to learning and updating. Nurses are professionals, capable of structuring and developing their careers. The CLPP provides a flexible framework to allow them to do just that. Kirsfy

Rowden RGN

Staff Nurse A fi E, Norfolk & Nonvich Hospital

Accident and Emergency ~ Medicine D G Ferguson & D I Fodden Churchill Livingstone, ISBN o-443-04512-7,

Edinburgh, l39pp,

1993, &?.50

Every page of Accident and Emergency Medicine by Ferguson and Fodden held my attention. Each page of script faces a page of informative colour photographs, making it easily readable as well as instructive. I found myself attempting to make a diagnosis from the pictures before I read the script and the book therefore proved to be a real learning and revision experience. The book is written in a sequentially logical style, making it easy to follow or equally easy to dip into. It deals with a wide range of clinical presentations from skull fractures to ankle sprains and soft tissue injuries to gunshot wounds, as well as nonaccidental injury and infection risks for staff. The book will make an ideal resource for exam preparation, for the emergency nurse practitioner and for all the other health care professionals in the Accident and Emergency department.

Perhaps the highest compliment which can be paid to an author is the use which is made of their material. I lost my copy for several days and found it in the pocket of a casualty officer’s white coat! Kate Burgess A 6r E Department Southend Hospital, Essex

Crashinjury$vestigation &jury mech&iisms Tfccid&rts f&et- L Harris HMSO October A30.00

for the transport

1993, ISBN (hardback)

and traffic =

in zad

research laboratory in O-1 l-551 181-4 264pp,

Despite the continuing efforts of many researchers, vehicle manufacturers and safety specialists, legislators and others, road accident deaths and injury still represent an unacceptably high toll. They are costly in resources and occupy the time and considerable skills of medical and nursing professions, who, together with the emergency services have to deal with the aftermath of a road traffic accident. Detailed knowledge of injury mechanisms in traffic accidents is an important prerequisite in understanding, and therefore reducing, this national cost in grief and suffering. This book considers both the laboratory’s work in the area of crash injury investigation as well as the efforts of others who have reported their findings at international level-of which there is a vast pool of knowledge. Injury mechanisms and problem areas associated with injury causation have been fully described by the different road user types of car occupants, motorcyclist, pedestrian, pedal cyclist, truck and coach occupants. The results from in-depth investigations are set against the background of national casualty statistics and vehicle related legislation. Methodologies associated with crash-injury work, together with ethical considerations, have been described in detail. The book contains a total of 12 chapters which are laid out in a logical sequence. All subject matter under discussion is extensively illustrated by tables and diagrams and the book contains many references which will be useful to readers requiring more detailed information. This book will find wide application to a variety of professional disciplines working within Accident and Emergency departments, trauma care units or for the paramedical services. It is an excellent book and I would highly recommend it. Ann RGA; Nurse Tutor, Francis Haniron

Lee

BEd (Hots)

College of Healthcare Guildford, Survey

5I

What seems to be the matter: communication between hospital and patients Audit Commission HMSO, London, 1993, ISBN 0- 11886-100-X, baperback)

75pp,

A9.00

This book is about the ways in which nurses and patients do, and do not, communicate. It is based upon work carried out in several hospitals and illustrates very well how patients and health care workers, including nurses, may interact with each other and the positive and negative outcome of various interactions. Much of the information is related to the Patient’s Charter. The authors consider the reasons for communication breakdown, patient and family access to the health service via communication and the use of complaints. The impact upon the patient, nurse and service is then considered, solutions are offered and recommendations made at regular intervals within all chapters. Throughout the book, diagrams and photographs are used to illustrate and support points made. Much of the information is presented from the patient’s perspective and the patient is placed in the centre of the communication process. In the Accident & Emergency (A & E) department where communication is often determined by a changing environment and priorities, this book should help A & E nurses to consider ways in which individual and departmental communication with patients, colleagues and hospital and community agencies may be improved. Lynn BSC (Honx), RCA:

RMN,

C. Sbaih ENB

199

Schizophrenia-An Overview and Practical Handbook D J Kavanagh (ed) Chapman G Hall, London, UK, ISBN O-412-38900-2, 46Opp A29.95 (hardback) Many ofyou will be familiar with the acutely ill schizophrenic patient in your Accident and Emergency (A 81 E) Department. Bizarre and disturbed behaviour in public places leads to many of these patients being brought to A & E as a first port of call. In the acute phase of the illness they demand a lot of our time and resources, both physical and mental. I looked in this book for some help with these problems, but found few solutions. Psychophysiological and neuroanatomical factors, genetics and differential diagnoses are all, no doubt, of tremendous value to mental health staff, and may well interest many of