Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Cherry Ames

Helen Wells, the author of the Cherry Ames stories said, “I’ve always thought of nursing, and perhaps you have, too, as just about the most exciting, important, and rewarding profession there is. Can you think of any other skill that is always needed by everybody?”—from the forward by Harriet Schulman Forman, RN, EdD, Series Editor

In the 1940s, Helen Wells created Cherry Ames, the longest-lived series of young adult books about nurses. It follows Cherry as she grows from student nurse to chief nurse, all the while developing friendships, pushing the limits of authority, leading her nursing colleagues, and solving mysteries. Cherry was created as an intelligent, brave, quick-witted, and devoted nurse.

The series begins with an eighteen-year-old Cherry Ames, who leaves her hometown and enters nursing school to embark on a lifetime of adventures. Included in this Cherry Ames four-book boxed set are:

Student Nurse: Where eighteen-year-old Cherry Ames takes her first steps on the road towards becoming a nurse. She begins three years of training at Spencer Hospital.

Senior Nurse: Cherry tackles tough decisions about her future responsibilities as a nurse during wartime. Cherry also completes her final year of training.

Army Nurse: Cherry Ames and her Spencer classmates join the Army Nurse Corps, undergo demanding basic training, and are sent to a base hospital in Panama to work. While there Cherry runs afoul of army regulations.

Chief Nurse: Still in the Army Nurse Corps with her Spencer hospital unit, Cherry, having been promoted to chief nurse, organizes an evacuation hospital on a Pacific jungle island and is tested under fire.

This four-book set features the identical design and sense of adventure and patriotism as when they were first published. With fully illustrated color covers and a soft-finished hardcover format, these books can be a great addition to your home or as a gift to friends or next generation nurses.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Healing Massage

The pleasure of massage can be a profound experience that helps to nurture, soothe, and comfort an individual. Massage can help one reconnect with his/her body and relieve stress and pain.

Healing Massage brings together the ancient healing practices of the East with Western massage techniques to heal both mind and body. Step-by-step, practitioners can help people unwind with a simple healing massage.

Many common ills are a consequence of our modern lifestyle and working practices. Sitting for long periods, staring at the computer or television screen, or working in a noisy environment can lead to sore eyes, muscle aches and stiffness, tension, and headache. This can lead to colds, cough, and flu. The accupoints in this guide can alleviate many of these symptoms and strengthen the body’s resistance to infection.

Delve into aromatic sensuality with rose-scented body scrubs and hot-oil Ayurvedic massage, try accupressure for pain relief, and soothe your mind with Eastern visualization techniques that have empowered and healed the spirit for thousands of years.

Healing Massage goes over how to:
• ease headaches
• boost fertility
• alleviate insomnia
• ease abdominal pain
• ease mild palpatations
• relax muscles and tendons

Detailed strategies teach ways to ease blocked sinuses, and reduce toothache and tensions in the jaw. Approaches also alleviate oedema, fluid retention, and bronchitis.

Areas go over reflex zone therapy. This branch of reflexology teaches how to release tension in the neck, spine, head, shoulders, solar plexus, ears, and eyes through the bottom of one’s foot. It also offers information on sea stones, which are placed between the toes to open the reflex zones in the feet.

In addition, topics touch on the important role of massage when working down the back. This section reviews several acupoints to strengthen the respiratory tract and help prevent coughs and colds. It also reveals that acupoints allow the practitioner to influence the flow of Chi energy. Each acupoint could either calm an over-energetic flow of Chi, or stimulate a sluggish one.

The chapter on massage on the move reveals that physical and emotional tension builds when one is sitting at a desk, traveling, or even standing in a queue. It offers several techniques on how to calm anxiety, boost energy, or treat an ailment.

This book teaches the five elements of Chinese Medicine, which include the heart, lungs, liver, spleen, and kidneys. It discusses that Chinese medicine draws together all aspects of nature and combines the elements, the seasons, and bodily systems into one unifying theory.

Beautifully illustrated, this book offers several photographic images and techniques to help practitioners give massages that touch both the heart and soul.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Pharmacology Demystified

Being able to administer the correct medication and correct dosage at the correct time are only some of the beginning aspects in patient safety. Nurses have many responsibilities throughout the day and though they are consumed with several tasks, it is vital that a nurse should have a clear understanding of what medications their patients are taking. It is a crucial part to the success of their patients’ health.

Pharmacology Demystified focuses on the practical aspects of pharmacology in order to master medications and battle the most complex issues nurses deal with on a daily basis. This self-teaching guide comes with key points, background information, quizzes at the end of each chapter, and a final exam. It includes:

• ways to properly store drugs
• how to prepare and administer all types of drugs
• how to identify the signs of patients’ reactions to drugs
• how drugs are selected to treat diseases that affect different organ systems

Areas touch on topics like cardiac circulatory medications, skin disorders, endocrine medications, and disorders of the eye and ear. It also reviews the differences between over-the-counter and prescription drugs, as well as prescription and medical abbreviations.

A section on the principles of medication administration teaches that it can be “tricky” and “dangerous” to apply drugs to a patient unless the proper precautions are followed. This guide teaches the traditional “five rights” of drug administration, which are the right patient, right drug, right dose, right time, and right route to make sure the patient is given the best care possible.

Easy enough for beginners, but challenging enough for advanced students and professionals, Pharmacology Demystified is an effective refresher, introductory text, or classroom supplement.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Manual of Vascular Diseases

From assessment and basic diagnostics to medical and surgical treatment options, this book offers easy access to treatment approaches for patients with vascular disease. Convenient and portable, it is written by cross-disciplinary leading experts in the fields of cardiology, vascular surgery, radiology, and vascular medicine. Coverage of each vital phase of care is explained throughout this text.

Chapters succinctly describe the most effective diagnostic assessment and treatment strategies, including drug doses, protocols for patient management, and algorithms. Find clear and straightforward information on topics such as diagnostic aspects of lower extremity arterial disease, history and physical examination, diagnostic angiography, and the use of magnetic resonance angiography in vascular disease.

Topics listed include:
• venous thromboembolism
• management of carotid disease
• management of vasculogenic impotence
• renovascular disease-diagnosis and management
• magnetic resonance angiography for the diagnosis of vascular disease

Examine clinical features and medical therapies, plus, learn about age groups and populations that are commonly susceptible to specific vascular illnesses. For instance, men and women are frequently affected by acute limb ischemia. This disease occurs in aged patients, who often have significant comorbidities.

Manual of Vascular Diseases discusses several approaches including the treating of aortic aneurysms, upper extremity arterial disease, and the approach and management of mesenteric vascular disease. A section on the vascular laboratory provides accurate and noninvasive methods of determining the presence and severity of arterial disorders. It discusses duplex ultrasonography and how it remains a staple of modern noninvasive vascular imaging.

This guide offers helpful tips, flow diagrams, and tables, along with over 200 illustrations that deliver practical insight needed for diagnostic accuracy. It addresses dosing of established and emerging medications, provides useful treatment algorithms, and several protocols for patient management. All in all, it is the essential quick reference on vascular disease today.

Pharmacology for Nurses

One of the most challenging aspects for nurses is the subject of pharmacology. In order to successfully predict drug action, it requires knowledge of anatomy, physiology, chemistry, and pathology, as well as the social sciences including psychology and sociology. Fortunately, Pharmacology for Nurses offers a clear picture of pharmacology in relation to disease and nursing care.

Organized according to body systems and diseases, this text presents a pathophysiology prototype approach to place drugs in context with how they are used therapeutically. Topics address the interdisciplinary nature of pharmacology and the advantages and disadvantages of prescription and over-the-counter drugs. In addition, individuals will learn about the role of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the drug approval process.

A holistic perspective offers an easy-to-follow presentation and extensive pedagogical aids that enable individuals to identify key ideas, understand concepts and apply essential components relevant to drug therapy. The natural therapies section discusses popular herbal or dietary supplements that may be considered along with conventional drugs.

Special considerations in this book feature a variety of issues related to culture, ethnicity, age, gender, and psychosocial considerations in drug therapy. Other issues go over bioterrorism and the nurse’s role, as well as topics such as anthrax, viruses, and neurotoxins. Pediatric and geriatric considerations are also integrated throughout this text.

Topics listed review:

• techniques for applying local anesthesia
• the four components of pharmacokinetics
• functional divisions of the peripheral nervous system
• the components of the human integration pyramid care model
• the goals of pharmacotherapy with skeletal muscle relaxants
• how to identify the causes, signs, and symptoms of a peptic ulcer disease

To facilitate learning, a prototype approach is used in which the one or two most representative drugs in each classification are introduced in detail. Prototype drug boxes are used to clearly indicate these important medications. Within these boxes, the actions and uses of the drug are succinctly presented and include administration alerts, which highlight vital information related to the administration of the drug. Nonpharmacologic methods for controlling many diseases are also integrated throughout this guide.

Nursing flowcharts present succinct, pharmacology-oriented information focused on the classification or prototype drug. Need-to-know nursing actions feature a format that reflects the flow of the nursing process, which is defined as: nursing assessment, potential nursing diagnoses, planning, interventions, patient education/discharge planning, and evaluation. The flowcharts also identify clearly what nursing actions are most important.

A section on drug immune system modulations discusses the components of the lymphatic system and explains why immunosuppressant medications are necessary following organ transplants. It describes the nurse’s role in the pharmacologic management of immune disorders and reviews major vaccines and recommended dosage schedules.

The appendixes offer a complete glossary of terms, Canadian drugs and their U.S. equivalents, and the top 200 drugs ranked by numbers and prescription. In addition, individuals will find an index with a special treatment of diseases, prototype drugs, classifications, and generic and trade names.

A MediaLink included at the beginning of each chapter identifies specific animations. Also, a free CD-ROM offers an interactive study program that allows individuals to practice answering NCLEX-style questions with rationales for right and wrong answers. Accompanying the CD-ROM, a companion website offers an audio glossary, case studies, drug reviews, and more.

This disease and body systems approach offers nurses and students the tools and skills necessary for learning about the most important drug information in a user-friendly format. It's a must have resource for any nurse’s library.

Trigger Point Therapy for Myofascial Pain

Is your patient’s sinus problem actually being cause by a kink in the neck? It’s possible. Myofascial trigger points—small knots in the muscles—can cause pain in other parts of the body, making difficult the diagnosis and treatment of a given ailment.

In this valuable book medical educators Donna and Steven Finando merge the Eastern philosophy centered on qi—the energy source found within us—and Western medicine’s advances in physiology to present an effective approach to locating the source of muscle pain and treating it. They begin by explaining the nature of muscles and trigger points and the phenomenology of qi, examining it from the perspective of myofascial syndromes, making it more accessible for health professionals.

Trigger Point Therapy for Myofascial Pain is broken down for easy reference with detailed illustrations—first by the body part, then by muscle groups. The book discusses:
• techniques for building your skills in muscle palpation
• common pain patterns—and pressure point stimulations to relieve them
• evaluation and palpation techniques for reducing trigger points (and alleviating pain) in clinically significant musculature
• stretching exercises to perform after applying pressure to prevent further injury

Both accessible and easy-to-use, this manual will help you evaluate a patient, define the presenting condition, and effectively treat the condition.

Medication Administration Made Incredibly Easy!

Learning how to administer medications doesn’t have to be complicated...or dull. Medication Administration Made Incredibly Easy! presents the basics in an easy-to-understand manner, while leavening the presentation with plenty of gentle humor.

The book makes it straightforward to learn and retain this information with memory joggers, fun-filled illustrations, and quick quizzes to reinforce the material covered. Medication Administration Made Incredibly Easy! features:
• hundreds of helpful tips as well as tips, charts, and step-by-step guidelines
• facts and advice on drug administration methods and routes, dosage considerations, drug interactions, and adverse effects
• information on legal and ethical issues in drug administration
• tips for avoiding medication administration errors
• guidance on injection and infusion techniques
• discussion of specific routes for chemotherapy and parenteral nutrition

From topical administration to specialized routes such as epidurals and intraperitoneal infusion, Medication Administration Made Incredibly Easy! enables you to master medication administration and reduce the chances of errors in a fun, user-friendly guide.