The need for caregiving is enormous. Thanks to extraordinary advances in medical technology, Americans are surviving illnesses and injuries that would have killed them a generation ago, and more of us are living into our eighties and nineties than ever before. Yet most people over sixty-five live with the burden of one or more chronic illness. The problems created by the caregiving needs of these and other groups are at the center of several of the most explosive political issues of our time: health care, welfare, child care, and family leave. These issues can be resolved, the editors of this volume contend, only when we as a society understand and value the work of caregiving and provide support for professional and family caregivers. The editors of this volume look not only at the financial, emotional, and physical demands of giving and receiving care but at the strengths and rewards inherent in the world of caregiving. This far-reaching book explores the depth and complexity of caregiving, from practice and personal experience, to ethics and policymaking, to home and institutional care.

2011 AJN Book of the Year Winner in Critical Care--Emergency Nursing

" This book is] a lavishly detailed guide to the essence of becoming an expert nurse...I believe this book will secure a place on most educators' and expert clinicians' bookshelves. Every once in a while a better book comes along; this is one of those times."

From the foreword by Joan E. Lynaugh, PhD, RN, FAAN
Professor Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

A classic research-based text in nursing practice and education, this newly revised second edition explains, through first-hand accounts of the hard-earned experiential wisdom of expert nurses, the clinical reasoning skills necessary for top-tier nursing in acute and critical settings. It provides not only the most current knowledge and practice innovations, but also reflects the authors' vast experience using the first edition in practice and educational settings.

This updated edition includes new interviews from acute care, critical care, perioperative nurses, and more. Attention is paid to current IOM and nursing guidelines for systems approaches to patient safety, with education and leadership implications described throughout. It is an essential resource for undergraduate and graduate nursing educators, students, administrators, and managers seeking to improve systems of care and leadership in clinical practice.

Key Features

Articulates major areas of knowledge and skill in acute, critical care, and perioperative nursing practice Provides vivid, first-hand accounts of hard-earned wisdom that facilitate clinical imagination, reflection, and lifelong learning Assists faculty, educators, APNs, and mentors in teaching nurses how to recognize recurring clinical syndromes and patterns Bridges the gap from theory to practice in dynamic patient care situations Embraces the complexity of caring for the critically ill and their families

Named a 2013 Doody's Core Title

Nursing practice is a complex and varied field that requires precision, dedication, care, and expertise. Clinicians must have both the skills and the tools to attend to changes in patients' responses, recognize trends, and understand the nature of their patients' conditions over time.

This book clearly delineates the skills needed to become an expert nurse. In this new edition, the editors present a report of a six-year study of over 130 hospital nurses working in critical care. Expanding upon the study conducted in the previous edition, this new book documents and analyzes hundreds of new clinical narratives that track the development of clinical skill acquisition, including caring, clinical judgment, workplace ethics, and more.

Highlights of this book: Includes transitional guidance for nurses new to the field Discusses the primacy of caring and the importance of good clinical judgment Includes new practice models, including the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition Provides guidelines for strengthening the nurse-patient relationship Presents implications for nursing education and patient safety

Ultimately, this work "defines" expertise in nursing practice. The book serves as a valuable resource that will enable nurses to expand their knowledge base, cultivate their clinical skills, and become successful experts in nursing practice.

By combining stories of care, the reflections of caregiving practitioners, and interpretations of caregiving within a larger social and theoretical framework, this collection identifies the values and skills involved in quality caregiving at the individual level and affirms their importance for reshaping our public caregiving institutions. Contributors from the fields of medicine, nursing, teaching, ministry, sociology, psychotherapy, theology, and philosophy articulate their values, hopes, commitments, and practices both in theoretical essays and in narratives of caregiving that reveal the complexities of skillful practice.

Drawing on case studies of 23 men in mid-career, this unique book examines the various meanings of work and their relationship to work stress and coping.