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How to cope with life transitions: The challenge of personal change
Inf. J. Nurs. Stud.. Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 283-287. Pergamon Press pk. Printed in Great Britain.
1991
Book Reviews How to Cope With Life Transitions: The Challenge of Personal Change. Lawrence M. Brammer. Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, New York, Washington, Philadelphia, London (1991). 123 pp. ISBN O-89116-962-8. ISSN 02753510. It is well known that episodes of mental disorder and exacerbation of physical ill-health are often precipitated by significant life events. That bereavement, divorce, redundancy or accidents should be thus associated with disease is readily understood, but many people are puzzled by the fact that depression and anxiety should at times follow happy events such as child birth, promotion and examination success. The author of this book explains why this should be so. He demonstrates that personal change is stressful, that it threatens stability and disrupts continuity. Discontinuity from previous life events he calls ‘transition’. A person’s role and status in life may be threatened, values which had been taken for granted may have to be questioned, and established views and behaviour patterns may have to be challenged. Coping skills must be mobilized. Sometimes people discover aptitudes they had not realized they had and they rise to the challenge. But some people need help in developing effective coping skills. The aim of this book is to assist in this process. It is written for the general reader who wants to understand the impact of change on his own life. It is also written for professionals who are looking for new ways to help their clients. The first chapter is a general discussion of the challenge and opportunities inherent in change. Subsequent chapters lead the reader systematically from critical points at the onset of ‘transition’ through the stages of coping, such as changing negative thoughts, managing behavioural change and stress. The last chapter pulls it all together and encourages readers to consider seeking professional help where appropriate. The book is full of sound information, clearly expressed. Its strength lies in dealing with disparate events under the unifying concept of ‘transition’. There, also, may possibly reside its weakness, especially for the general reader. It seems unlikely that a reader, troubled by a particular crisis, attempting to cope with the resulting depression and anxiety, would be willing to read about other people’s seemingly trivial and irrelevant problems. Personally, I react negatively to being interrupted in the reading of a book by exhortations to carry out some kind of exercise. Examples are: requests to make lists, to plot my life line, to keep a journal, to stop to devise some definitions, to analyse life goals or time commitments, to indulge in visualization or to draw pie charts. Some people, I realize, like reading texts interspersed with questions and exercises and they will find this book helpful. There are many vivid illustrative vignettes of people in transition; for example, Harman on a business trip, Georgina on vacation, Conrad with a terminally ill wife, Gloria in a new job, Yvonne with a new baby. Again, I question whether the reader who has empathy with the problem of one of these people can muster interest in the worries of the others. I suspect that professional helpers or lay-carers will gain more from the book than general 283
284
BOOK
REVIEWS
readers with personal problems of transition. There is a lot of value, in spite of these reservations, in having this book available, almost as an encyclopedia of strategies and techniques for the management of life transitions. ANNIE T. ALTSCHUL, CBE, F.R.C.N.,
B.A.,
M-SC.,
R.G.N.,
R.M.N.,
R.N.T.
Emeritus Professor of Nursing Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh.
Working in the Operating Department. 0443039089.
B. Kumar. Churchill Livingstone (1990). ISBN
This book makes sweeping claims to meet the needs of student nurses, trainee ODAs, anaesthetic and recovery nurses and even medical students. What it does is describe what happens in one particular theatre or group of theatres and state that this is the way to do things. I would have preferred the author to come out in the open and say that this is a book for trainee ODAs. It does not meet the needs of student nurses and I would be very surprised if it met the needs of anaesthetic and recovery nurses except in a very restricted way. The book is well presented by the publishers but I did not find it particularly readable. I might have found it more attractive if I was using it to dip into as a reference book. The only problem about using the book as a reference book would be that in many areas the information is very superficial. The book is written by a doctor to fill a need as he sees it. It is a great pity that the objectives are not explicitly stated, that the information is so superficial and that there is not one reference in the entire book. Each chapter concludes with multi-choice questions. As I understand it, the use of this gambit is to reinforce the learning which has taken place in the chapter. The questions are merely a quiz on information that is not necessarily contained in the chapter. I do not think I would learn very much from this book, though it would be good revision for a trainee ODA, especially the sections on diathermy, physics and anaesthetic drugs. There are also some very useful check lists. The book is generously illustrated but none of the photographs or line drawings are labelled. Some of the line drawings would have been improved by the use of a professional artist. The best were borrowed from elsewhere. This book worries me seriously as there are inexactitudes in some chapters. The section on “Patient Care and Theatre Techniques” is positively dangerous. I found myself disagreeing with statements such as “pain is a purely sensory experience” and “AIDS is found in high risk groups”. I also felt that there was little understanding about the really important things you need to learn in the operating theatre. Do we need a chapter on the health service when we have only one paragraph on regional anaesthesia? This book will probably be used by trainee ODAs. I hope no student nurse will buy it as there are many more useful books on theatre nursing on the market. The book has absolutely no insight into nursing care or the needs of the nurse learner.
1991
Book Reviews How to Cope With Life Transitions: The Challenge of Personal Change. Lawrence M. Brammer. Hemisphere Publishing Corporation, New York, Washington, Philadelphia, London (1991). 123 pp. ISBN O-89116-962-8. ISSN 02753510. It is well known that episodes of mental disorder and exacerbation of physical ill-health are often precipitated by significant life events. That bereavement, divorce, redundancy or accidents should be thus associated with disease is readily understood, but many people are puzzled by the fact that depression and anxiety should at times follow happy events such as child birth, promotion and examination success. The author of this book explains why this should be so. He demonstrates that personal change is stressful, that it threatens stability and disrupts continuity. Discontinuity from previous life events he calls ‘transition’. A person’s role and status in life may be threatened, values which had been taken for granted may have to be questioned, and established views and behaviour patterns may have to be challenged. Coping skills must be mobilized. Sometimes people discover aptitudes they had not realized they had and they rise to the challenge. But some people need help in developing effective coping skills. The aim of this book is to assist in this process. It is written for the general reader who wants to understand the impact of change on his own life. It is also written for professionals who are looking for new ways to help their clients. The first chapter is a general discussion of the challenge and opportunities inherent in change. Subsequent chapters lead the reader systematically from critical points at the onset of ‘transition’ through the stages of coping, such as changing negative thoughts, managing behavioural change and stress. The last chapter pulls it all together and encourages readers to consider seeking professional help where appropriate. The book is full of sound information, clearly expressed. Its strength lies in dealing with disparate events under the unifying concept of ‘transition’. There, also, may possibly reside its weakness, especially for the general reader. It seems unlikely that a reader, troubled by a particular crisis, attempting to cope with the resulting depression and anxiety, would be willing to read about other people’s seemingly trivial and irrelevant problems. Personally, I react negatively to being interrupted in the reading of a book by exhortations to carry out some kind of exercise. Examples are: requests to make lists, to plot my life line, to keep a journal, to stop to devise some definitions, to analyse life goals or time commitments, to indulge in visualization or to draw pie charts. Some people, I realize, like reading texts interspersed with questions and exercises and they will find this book helpful. There are many vivid illustrative vignettes of people in transition; for example, Harman on a business trip, Georgina on vacation, Conrad with a terminally ill wife, Gloria in a new job, Yvonne with a new baby. Again, I question whether the reader who has empathy with the problem of one of these people can muster interest in the worries of the others. I suspect that professional helpers or lay-carers will gain more from the book than general 283
284
BOOK
REVIEWS
readers with personal problems of transition. There is a lot of value, in spite of these reservations, in having this book available, almost as an encyclopedia of strategies and techniques for the management of life transitions. ANNIE T. ALTSCHUL, CBE, F.R.C.N.,
B.A.,
M-SC.,
R.G.N.,
R.M.N.,
R.N.T.
Emeritus Professor of Nursing Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh.
Working in the Operating Department. 0443039089.
B. Kumar. Churchill Livingstone (1990). ISBN
This book makes sweeping claims to meet the needs of student nurses, trainee ODAs, anaesthetic and recovery nurses and even medical students. What it does is describe what happens in one particular theatre or group of theatres and state that this is the way to do things. I would have preferred the author to come out in the open and say that this is a book for trainee ODAs. It does not meet the needs of student nurses and I would be very surprised if it met the needs of anaesthetic and recovery nurses except in a very restricted way. The book is well presented by the publishers but I did not find it particularly readable. I might have found it more attractive if I was using it to dip into as a reference book. The only problem about using the book as a reference book would be that in many areas the information is very superficial. The book is written by a doctor to fill a need as he sees it. It is a great pity that the objectives are not explicitly stated, that the information is so superficial and that there is not one reference in the entire book. Each chapter concludes with multi-choice questions. As I understand it, the use of this gambit is to reinforce the learning which has taken place in the chapter. The questions are merely a quiz on information that is not necessarily contained in the chapter. I do not think I would learn very much from this book, though it would be good revision for a trainee ODA, especially the sections on diathermy, physics and anaesthetic drugs. There are also some very useful check lists. The book is generously illustrated but none of the photographs or line drawings are labelled. Some of the line drawings would have been improved by the use of a professional artist. The best were borrowed from elsewhere. This book worries me seriously as there are inexactitudes in some chapters. The section on “Patient Care and Theatre Techniques” is positively dangerous. I found myself disagreeing with statements such as “pain is a purely sensory experience” and “AIDS is found in high risk groups”. I also felt that there was little understanding about the really important things you need to learn in the operating theatre. Do we need a chapter on the health service when we have only one paragraph on regional anaesthesia? This book will probably be used by trainee ODAs. I hope no student nurse will buy it as there are many more useful books on theatre nursing on the market. The book has absolutely no insight into nursing care or the needs of the nurse learner.