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Practice Made Prefect: Higher Level Aspirations for Practice Nurses
Book/media reviews
anomalies of the responsibilities of the job, in the front line of patient care, and the restriction on prescribing by practice nurses. She encourages nurses to look to the future through advancing their practice and developing as independent practitioners in ways and areas that is only bounded by the practitioner’s imagination. Chapter 2 seeks to inform the arguments about advanced practice, again taking a historical perspective, laying out the approaches of the UKCC in their initial publication The Future of Professional PracticeÕ (1994). Several models of advanced practice are discussed including Benner, Fenton and Calkin and the importance of practice nurses working at an advanced level is suggested. Chapters 3 and 4 outline the nature of a practice consultation, respectively, the interactive communication process and physical assessment. Chapter 4 ends with a helpful case study demonstrating how through effective interviewing and physical examination the advanced nurse practitioner was able to offer a comprehensive, holistic consultation providing the kind of care practice nursing aims to achieve. Chapter 5 clarifies the development and need for the skills of critical thinking and decision-making. It also explicates the sources of knowledge that inform decisions. Chapter 6 highlights the need to press for change recognising the value and importance of the practice nurse and
672 Nurse Education Today (2002) 22, 669–672
promoting the critical steps in role transition and development. Overall an inspirational book that appears to achieve what it sets out to do—i.e. urge practice nurses to reach their potential by advancing their practice and making increasing contributions to health care. My criticism is that Paniagua intermingles instruction about the conduct of clinical practice with her attempts to progress a political debate. Clearly because of the constrained size of the book neither is done to depth or satisfaction and left me feeling frustrated, requiring more detail and information on both accounts. In this respect the text may have achieved its aim by inciting a curiosity to explore further! Bearing my earlier point in mind I would recommend the book as an item to be borrowed rather than owned. Therefore it may be a useful contribution to healthcare libraries as it could be of interest to a wide variety of health professionals who are thinking about or undertaking programmes to advance their practice and who would appreciate an overview of the subject. Magi Sque Senior Lecturer University of Southampton Southampton, UK doi:10.1016/S0260-6917(02)00136-3, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on
ª 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd
anomalies of the responsibilities of the job, in the front line of patient care, and the restriction on prescribing by practice nurses. She encourages nurses to look to the future through advancing their practice and developing as independent practitioners in ways and areas that is only bounded by the practitioner’s imagination. Chapter 2 seeks to inform the arguments about advanced practice, again taking a historical perspective, laying out the approaches of the UKCC in their initial publication The Future of Professional PracticeÕ (1994). Several models of advanced practice are discussed including Benner, Fenton and Calkin and the importance of practice nurses working at an advanced level is suggested. Chapters 3 and 4 outline the nature of a practice consultation, respectively, the interactive communication process and physical assessment. Chapter 4 ends with a helpful case study demonstrating how through effective interviewing and physical examination the advanced nurse practitioner was able to offer a comprehensive, holistic consultation providing the kind of care practice nursing aims to achieve. Chapter 5 clarifies the development and need for the skills of critical thinking and decision-making. It also explicates the sources of knowledge that inform decisions. Chapter 6 highlights the need to press for change recognising the value and importance of the practice nurse and
672 Nurse Education Today (2002) 22, 669–672
promoting the critical steps in role transition and development. Overall an inspirational book that appears to achieve what it sets out to do—i.e. urge practice nurses to reach their potential by advancing their practice and making increasing contributions to health care. My criticism is that Paniagua intermingles instruction about the conduct of clinical practice with her attempts to progress a political debate. Clearly because of the constrained size of the book neither is done to depth or satisfaction and left me feeling frustrated, requiring more detail and information on both accounts. In this respect the text may have achieved its aim by inciting a curiosity to explore further! Bearing my earlier point in mind I would recommend the book as an item to be borrowed rather than owned. Therefore it may be a useful contribution to healthcare libraries as it could be of interest to a wide variety of health professionals who are thinking about or undertaking programmes to advance their practice and who would appreciate an overview of the subject. Magi Sque Senior Lecturer University of Southampton Southampton, UK doi:10.1016/S0260-6917(02)00136-3, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on
ª 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd