Main description:

This easy-to-read text introduces you to the issues and trends you're likely to encounter in any nursing practice setting. Each stand-alone chapter introduces and explores a specific topic and gives insightful discussions of issues such as the health care delivery system, professionalization in nursing, standards and scope of practice, socialization and nursing theories surrounding the profession, and political action facing nurses.

Contents:

1. Nursing Today: A Time of Transformation
2. The History and Social Context of Nursing
3. Nursing's Pathway to Professionalism
4. Legal Aspects of Nursing
5. Ethics: Basic Concepts for Nursing Practice
6. Becoming a Nurse: Defining Nursing and Socialization Into Professional Practice
7. The Education of Nurses: On the Leading Edge of Transformation
8. Critical Thinking, the Nursing Process, and Clinical Judgment
9. Communication and Collaboration in Nursing
10. Illness, Culture, and Caring: Impact on Patients, Families, and Nurses
11. The Science of Nursing and Evidence-Based Practice
12. Conceptual and Philosophical Bases of Nursing
13. Nursing Theory: The Basis for Professional Nursing
14. Health Care in the United States
15. Political Activism In Nursing: Communities, Organizations, Government
16. Nursing's Challenge: The Call for Transformation