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Nursing Research: Methods, Critical Appraisal and Utilisation (2nd edition)
Book Reviews Community Health and Wellness – A Sociological Approach 2nd edition
Nursing Research: Methods, Critical Appraisal and Utilisation (2nd edition)
Author: Anne McMurray Publisher: Elsevier ISBN: 0 7295 3673 4
Authors: Zevia Schneider, Doug Elliott, Geri LoBiondo-Wood, Judith Haber Publisher: Mosby ISBN: 0 7295 3665 3 Year: 2002 Price: RRP $78.10 (including GST)
This multidisciplinary text discusses factors influencing community health and development. The author states that it is a guide to assist communities to create and sustain health and well-being. The book is divided into three sections. The first section provides basic definitions of community, health and wellness. It explains some philosophical approaches to community and public health, while introducing the reader to The Ottawa Charter. Other concepts covered include primary health care, determinants of health, and health promotion. Using a developmental approach, the second section introduces the reader to health sustainability, with chapters covering children, adolescents, adults and the elderly. Although family health and gender issues are discussed mainly from a western perspective, the author highlights issues for families in the twenty-first century. It is encouraging to read a chapter dedicated to the health of indigenous people that is framed around colonisation and disempowerment. Comparisons are made to South Africa, Canada, the United States and New Zealand. However the reader is continually brought back to the multiple realities of the Australian Aboriginal peoples. Section three extends the previous concepts to what the author describes as the major contexts within which health can be promoted: healthy schools, healthy workplaces, research, health systems and public policy. The text is well organised, with objectives as an introduction and critical thinking as a conclusion to each chapter. Case studies are used to provide practical examples of the application of The Ottawa Charter. This ensures that the text is contemporary, with an excellent case study highlighting the Australian policy of retaining children in detention. Extensive referencing is evident after each chapter, providing the reader with every assistance to further pursue topics of interest. The author continually reminds the reader of the ways in which globalisation affects the health of communities, thus reinforcing the link between theory and practice. I was particularly impressed with the, albeit short, section on cultural safety - a nurse-driven primary health care initiative that is rarely evident in Australian literature. However, as the author states that the Jakarta Declaration represents the vanguard of health promotion for this millennium, it would have seemed more appropriate to have used this as the framework for discussions. I question whether the author’s expectation, that this book will assist communities everywhere to create and sustain health and well-being, will be realised. However the text does provide a useful smorgasbord of public health approaches for undergraduate students preparing for a career in health. Reviewer: Susan Ritchie RN DPH MPH Manager, Child Health, Taranaki District Health Board New Plymouth 4620, New Zealand 42
Collegian Vol 11 No 1 2004
The aim of this book is to assist nurses, midwives and other health professionals in developing critical appraisal skills and research consumer expertise, as well as to provide some beginning skills in conducting research. The book is aimed at students at the undergraduate level. All contributors are Australian and the book has a distinctly Australian/Australasian focus. The book begins by exploring the link between research and practice and this seems very appropriate given that nurses often have difficulty seeing the connection. The book is structured into three sections. Section one is titled research and practice. The chapters included in this section provide the rationale for why research is important for nursing practice, as well as providing the fundamentals of research critique. Topics covered include research and professional practice, a general overview of approaches to research, how to find and search literature sources, how to conduct a critical review, how to read and critique literature reviews, evidence based nursing, implementing research into practice, and how to develop a research proposal. The second section covers qualitative research methods while the third section covers quantitative methods. Each of these sections begins with an overview of the research paradigm followed by in-depth information on different aspects of qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative research section is extensive and each chapter focuses on a different research method. Methods covered include historical methods, grounded theory, ethnography, phenomenology, feminist and critical approaches, action research and collaborative evaluation research. The quantitative section adopts a different approach, focusing less on specific methods and more on the various aspects of quantitative research. There are chapters on data collection, observational designs and methods, including a section on epidemiology, interventional designs and methods, assessing instrument psychometrics, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Each chapter in the book begins with learning outcomes and key terms and ends with key points and critical thinking challenges, providing a good structure and summary for each chapter. The book is very relevant for nursing today and covers current topics such as electronic sources of information, evidence based practice and clinical governance. Some of the highlights of the book include the chapter on strategies for conducting a critical review and the chapter on implementing research into practice. A strength of the book is the extensive use of summary tables and flow charts, particularly in the first section, which help the reader to organise the information presented. Overall, the book is a useful text for nurses and nursing students, it contains some excellent material, and provides comprehensive coverage of the knowledge needed to assist nurses to become critical consumers of research and beginning nurse researchers. Reviewer: Helen Myers RN BSc MNurs Clinical Nurse, Centre for Nursing Research, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
Nursing Research: Methods, Critical Appraisal and Utilisation (2nd edition)
Author: Anne McMurray Publisher: Elsevier ISBN: 0 7295 3673 4
Authors: Zevia Schneider, Doug Elliott, Geri LoBiondo-Wood, Judith Haber Publisher: Mosby ISBN: 0 7295 3665 3 Year: 2002 Price: RRP $78.10 (including GST)
This multidisciplinary text discusses factors influencing community health and development. The author states that it is a guide to assist communities to create and sustain health and well-being. The book is divided into three sections. The first section provides basic definitions of community, health and wellness. It explains some philosophical approaches to community and public health, while introducing the reader to The Ottawa Charter. Other concepts covered include primary health care, determinants of health, and health promotion. Using a developmental approach, the second section introduces the reader to health sustainability, with chapters covering children, adolescents, adults and the elderly. Although family health and gender issues are discussed mainly from a western perspective, the author highlights issues for families in the twenty-first century. It is encouraging to read a chapter dedicated to the health of indigenous people that is framed around colonisation and disempowerment. Comparisons are made to South Africa, Canada, the United States and New Zealand. However the reader is continually brought back to the multiple realities of the Australian Aboriginal peoples. Section three extends the previous concepts to what the author describes as the major contexts within which health can be promoted: healthy schools, healthy workplaces, research, health systems and public policy. The text is well organised, with objectives as an introduction and critical thinking as a conclusion to each chapter. Case studies are used to provide practical examples of the application of The Ottawa Charter. This ensures that the text is contemporary, with an excellent case study highlighting the Australian policy of retaining children in detention. Extensive referencing is evident after each chapter, providing the reader with every assistance to further pursue topics of interest. The author continually reminds the reader of the ways in which globalisation affects the health of communities, thus reinforcing the link between theory and practice. I was particularly impressed with the, albeit short, section on cultural safety - a nurse-driven primary health care initiative that is rarely evident in Australian literature. However, as the author states that the Jakarta Declaration represents the vanguard of health promotion for this millennium, it would have seemed more appropriate to have used this as the framework for discussions. I question whether the author’s expectation, that this book will assist communities everywhere to create and sustain health and well-being, will be realised. However the text does provide a useful smorgasbord of public health approaches for undergraduate students preparing for a career in health. Reviewer: Susan Ritchie RN DPH MPH Manager, Child Health, Taranaki District Health Board New Plymouth 4620, New Zealand 42
Collegian Vol 11 No 1 2004
The aim of this book is to assist nurses, midwives and other health professionals in developing critical appraisal skills and research consumer expertise, as well as to provide some beginning skills in conducting research. The book is aimed at students at the undergraduate level. All contributors are Australian and the book has a distinctly Australian/Australasian focus. The book begins by exploring the link between research and practice and this seems very appropriate given that nurses often have difficulty seeing the connection. The book is structured into three sections. Section one is titled research and practice. The chapters included in this section provide the rationale for why research is important for nursing practice, as well as providing the fundamentals of research critique. Topics covered include research and professional practice, a general overview of approaches to research, how to find and search literature sources, how to conduct a critical review, how to read and critique literature reviews, evidence based nursing, implementing research into practice, and how to develop a research proposal. The second section covers qualitative research methods while the third section covers quantitative methods. Each of these sections begins with an overview of the research paradigm followed by in-depth information on different aspects of qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative research section is extensive and each chapter focuses on a different research method. Methods covered include historical methods, grounded theory, ethnography, phenomenology, feminist and critical approaches, action research and collaborative evaluation research. The quantitative section adopts a different approach, focusing less on specific methods and more on the various aspects of quantitative research. There are chapters on data collection, observational designs and methods, including a section on epidemiology, interventional designs and methods, assessing instrument psychometrics, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Each chapter in the book begins with learning outcomes and key terms and ends with key points and critical thinking challenges, providing a good structure and summary for each chapter. The book is very relevant for nursing today and covers current topics such as electronic sources of information, evidence based practice and clinical governance. Some of the highlights of the book include the chapter on strategies for conducting a critical review and the chapter on implementing research into practice. A strength of the book is the extensive use of summary tables and flow charts, particularly in the first section, which help the reader to organise the information presented. Overall, the book is a useful text for nurses and nursing students, it contains some excellent material, and provides comprehensive coverage of the knowledge needed to assist nurses to become critical consumers of research and beginning nurse researchers. Reviewer: Helen Myers RN BSc MNurs Clinical Nurse, Centre for Nursing Research, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital