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Surgical nursing
180
BOOK REVIEWS
Surgical Nursing. Maureen Wilson. Nurses’ Aid Series. Bailliere Tindall/W.
B. Saunders,
London (1985) Price f2.95. ISBN 0-7020-1061-B. This eleventh edition of Surgical Nursing in the Nurses’ Aid Series has been completely rewritten and updated. The author has recognized the necessity to reflect the changes and advances that have taken place in nursing knowledge in the past two decades and to demonstrate that conceptually our approach to nursing the patient with a surgical condition has radically altered. Essentially the structure of the book is now firmly based on a nursing model of care in place of the former inappropriate medical model. However, the author recognizes that all nursing models have a common theme and has wisely decided not to follow any one specific model. Rather she has chosen to discuss principles of care and allow the reader to adopt the model of choice and relevance. This I believe to be a sound decision, as rigid adherence to any one model too often proves to be counterproductive and even dogmatic. The book consists of ten short chapters. The first chapter deals with the principles of surgical nursing and the subsequent nine deal with specific areas. Each chapter is well laid out, logically organized and suitably and clearly illustrated. In addition, each chapter is followed by references for further reading which directly link the elemental nature of the text with the necessary further reading required to increase the reader’ knowledge. Clearly the nature of the Nurses’ Aid Series is such that they are intended to provide the reader with the essential features of the subject matter in hand on an introductory or reference level. In my view the author succeeds not only in providing a sound introductory text but also in taking the reader beyond the particular subject matter and enabling her to enhance her ability to understand and operationalize the systematic, problem-orientated approach to care. In this latter respect the book could also be of value to trained staff. Lastly, I must add that the modesty of the price must surely increase the chances of this book becoming a welcome addition to many nurses’ bookshelves. JOSEPHINEN. FAWCETT, S.R.N.,
B.Sc.
(Hons.),
M.Sc.,
R.N.T.
A Colour Atlas of Human Anatomy.
Medical Publications,
R. M. H. McMinn and R. T. Hutchings. Wolfe London (1985). Price g14.95.
This is a special edition of the highly successful life-size Atlas and is identical to the original except for a 30% reduction in size and a soft cover. The original Atlas is so high in my esteem that I picked up the smaller version with considerable enthusiasm. However, interestingly, the reduction in size has had a disproportionate effect on the overall quality of the book. There are numerous examples one can choose to illustrate the differences. The photographs of the bones have generally lost the textural quality of the original-for example, on page 11, the right side of the skull, or on page 271, the upper end of the femur. Many of the dissections have lost their sharp and subtle colour definitions and much of their clarity (pages 40 and 41) and some seem to have acquired a rather orange hue-for example, the neck dissections on page 44. The photograph on page 109 lacks both the colour contrast of the original and the feeling of depth. One of the most attractive features of the large Atlas is that many of the photographs are startlingly life-like and authentic, for
BOOK REVIEWS
Surgical Nursing. Maureen Wilson. Nurses’ Aid Series. Bailliere Tindall/W.
B. Saunders,
London (1985) Price f2.95. ISBN 0-7020-1061-B. This eleventh edition of Surgical Nursing in the Nurses’ Aid Series has been completely rewritten and updated. The author has recognized the necessity to reflect the changes and advances that have taken place in nursing knowledge in the past two decades and to demonstrate that conceptually our approach to nursing the patient with a surgical condition has radically altered. Essentially the structure of the book is now firmly based on a nursing model of care in place of the former inappropriate medical model. However, the author recognizes that all nursing models have a common theme and has wisely decided not to follow any one specific model. Rather she has chosen to discuss principles of care and allow the reader to adopt the model of choice and relevance. This I believe to be a sound decision, as rigid adherence to any one model too often proves to be counterproductive and even dogmatic. The book consists of ten short chapters. The first chapter deals with the principles of surgical nursing and the subsequent nine deal with specific areas. Each chapter is well laid out, logically organized and suitably and clearly illustrated. In addition, each chapter is followed by references for further reading which directly link the elemental nature of the text with the necessary further reading required to increase the reader’ knowledge. Clearly the nature of the Nurses’ Aid Series is such that they are intended to provide the reader with the essential features of the subject matter in hand on an introductory or reference level. In my view the author succeeds not only in providing a sound introductory text but also in taking the reader beyond the particular subject matter and enabling her to enhance her ability to understand and operationalize the systematic, problem-orientated approach to care. In this latter respect the book could also be of value to trained staff. Lastly, I must add that the modesty of the price must surely increase the chances of this book becoming a welcome addition to many nurses’ bookshelves. JOSEPHINEN. FAWCETT, S.R.N.,
B.Sc.
(Hons.),
M.Sc.,
R.N.T.
A Colour Atlas of Human Anatomy.
Medical Publications,
R. M. H. McMinn and R. T. Hutchings. Wolfe London (1985). Price g14.95.
This is a special edition of the highly successful life-size Atlas and is identical to the original except for a 30% reduction in size and a soft cover. The original Atlas is so high in my esteem that I picked up the smaller version with considerable enthusiasm. However, interestingly, the reduction in size has had a disproportionate effect on the overall quality of the book. There are numerous examples one can choose to illustrate the differences. The photographs of the bones have generally lost the textural quality of the original-for example, on page 11, the right side of the skull, or on page 271, the upper end of the femur. Many of the dissections have lost their sharp and subtle colour definitions and much of their clarity (pages 40 and 41) and some seem to have acquired a rather orange hue-for example, the neck dissections on page 44. The photograph on page 109 lacks both the colour contrast of the original and the feeling of depth. One of the most attractive features of the large Atlas is that many of the photographs are startlingly life-like and authentic, for