Primary Care: The Art and Science of Advanced Practice Nursing by Lynne M. Dunphy, Thomas, Jill E. Winland-Brown, Porter, Brian O. Porter

From the Publisher

Primary Care: The Art and Science of Advanced Practice Nursingis a state-of-the-art major family health text with a nursing focus for the advanced practice nurse and/or case manager. It provides an innovative approach to the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and includes the basic principles of disease and treatment, an in-depth discussion of the pathophysiology of the disorder, and the rationale for selecting diagnostic tests and treatments.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Sharon J. Olsen, MS, NP, AOCN (Johns Hopkins University )
Description:This multiauthored book offers a "holistic approach to advanced nursing practice."
Purpose:The editors have envisioned a broad-based APN role, one that provides population-based care as well as traditional direct patient care. The purpose is to provide APN students with the necessary introductory information to plan and provide direct care in diverse clinical settings and to evaluate clinical outcomes. As with any book that attempts such a broad goal, its use necessitates combination with other complementary texts (e.g., an advanced pharmacology text, a patho/physiology text, a lab manual) .
Audience:The intended audience is the ambulatory care, advanced practice, graduate student in nursing. This includes not only the adult primary care nurse practitioner but also the clinical specialist who plans to integrate a strong direct patient care component to his/her expanded role. The book should be very useful for the new APN student seeing only one or two patients. However, as they progress in their program, many may find it frustrating to wade through the dense chapters to quickly ascertain salient patient care information. The editors are both family nurse practitioners, one coordinates a graduate nursing program and the other, an undergraduate program. It is not clear whether or how they maintain their advanced practice status.
Features:The book is divided into three units. The first unit sets a foundation for care delivery. An introductory chapter presents a model of advanced practice nursing, grounded in "The Circle ofCaring", an epistemology structured by the nursing process, superimposed upon the medical model, grounded in the lived experience, and bound by caring. Other chapters address population- and culturally-based caring, health promotion, the art of diagnosis and treatment, and clinical outcomes. The main part of the book, Unit II (14 chapters) , is disease management-focused and divided into systems-based chapters. The format for each chapter is standardized, beginning with a series of very useful flow charts listing differential diagnoses for common complaints. This is followed by disease specific content addressing epidemiology and causes, pathophysiology, clinical presentation (subjective and objective) , diagnostic reasoning (diagnostic tests, differential diagnoses, and management) , follow-up and referral, and patient education. Seven chapters in Unit III address long-term and palliative care, a 15-minute psychotherapy approach, evidence-based practice, legal and ethical issues, business issues, and caring for oneself. A number of additions would benefit this text. The book is dense with text; pictures demonstrating select physical assessment skills are needed throughout, but especially in the musculoskeletal chapter. The dermatology chapter is devoid of pictures. There is little attention to genetic mechanisms of disease and no coverage of pedigree analysis, genetic counseling/referral or genetic testing. Attention to complementary therapies is inconsistent between chapters — important in a book that seeks to be holistic. More liberal use of case studies to promote critical decision making on the part of students would be a welcome addition. Finally, I found the foreword off-putting and it concerns me that students might also. Its focus on feminist theory, traditional stereotypic roles of men and women, and its discussion of the role of medicine as scientific and materialist compared with the emotional world of nursing is unnecessary and inconsistent with the rest of this book.
Assessment:The editors are to be commended for attempting a book that reminds (if not by its sheer weight then certainly by its content) both APN students and faculty of our nursing roots and the breadth of the APN role. Depth comes with additional coursework, independent study, time, exposure and patience. To paraphrase, "This is not your mother's nurse practitioner textbook." Nor is it the standard advanced practice nursing text. It is much more. We live in a rapidly changing healthcare environment. The lived experience of today's APN role is shifting; expanding here and contracting there. Some may say this book smacks of the old "blended role" APN title. I disagree. It sets forth in bold relief the expanded potential for today's ambulatory care clinical specialist or nurse practitioner.

Booknews

Twenty-eight chapters cover the basic principles of disease and treatment and provide in-depth discussion of the pathophysiology of various disorders, and the rationale for selecting diagnostic tests and treatments. Key features include a "circle of caring" framework to cover persons in all phases of the life span; a view of the patient within the context of family and environment; a systems format that builds on the basics of anatomy, physiology, and pathology; and diagnostic and treatment algorithms. Numerous displays present risk factors, differential diagnosis, and treatment flowcharts; screening recommendations and guidelines; advanced assessment; therapeutic procedures; nursing research-based practice; normal vs. abnormal anatomy; complementary therapies; drugs commonly prescribed; and advanced practice nursing interventions. Editors Dunphy and Winland-Brown are associated with the College of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Rating

3 Stars from Doody

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents