Doody 图书评论

The primary focus of this text is the medical care of the terminally ill cancer patient. Most impressive is the authors' willingness to recognize that most cancer care could be viewed as palliative since so few cancers are curable. Utilizing this philosophy the authors suggest ways to focus care on disease and symptom management. While this is not a comprehensive textbook, the authors do provide guidance and direction to the clinician caring for terminally ill cancer patients. There are currently numerous texts in which these same issues are addressed, including Muth's Death and Dying Sourcebook (Omnigraphics, 2000) and Regnard's A Guide to Symptom Relief in Advanced Disease, 4th Edition (Hochland and Hochland Publishers, 1998). This text is designed for clinicians and educators involved in cancer care. The authors bring a wealth of knowledge to this topic of medical management at the end of life. They provide information on how to assess and intervene when complications occur at t he end of life. In the introductory section they provide a short overview of palliative care and identify the family as the unit of care. However, obviously absent from the text is the role of spiritual and bereavement care. While there are other texts in which symptom management at the end of life is addressed, the medical approach provided by the authors here is a nice addition to the existing body of knowledge. Lisa Stepp, MS, RN, AOCN(Private Practice). Copyright 2001, Doody Publishing