Doody's Book Review

This introduction to mental health nursing is an overview of the various aspects of mental health, the care continuum, and societal perspectives on emotional aspects of life. The purpose is to provide information the student can apply while dealing with the emotional issues of a client's illnesses. The authors include explicit directions to the student to return to certain content areas for review and to track progress. The LPN/LVN role is clearly defined. The audience is the generic nursing student. The authors establish the foundations for viewing each client as an individual and developing the ability to address emotional needs regardless of the setting. This book is useful for beginning students regardless of the specialty area in nursing. The authors are qualified and experienced professional nurses. This book is nicely organized into four units that may be covered in any order. Chapters have Critical Thinking questions students can answer about themselves and a rating scale to gauge skill level is included. Each topic is covered in a somewhat abridged manner, giving general ideas to work with and a foundation that would need to be built upon to function in the specialty. Still, this format serves the medical-surgical nursing student well. The chapter questions are useful as they instruct further. This book is comprehensive and easy to use for the nursing student. The information is thought-provoking and respectful of the science of nursing as well as the experience of requiring mental health care. Eileen Trigoboff, RN, CS, DNS(Buffalo Psychiatric Center). Copyright 2001, Doody Publishing