Palliative Care Book of the Month and other Book Reviews
Palliative Care Book of the Month
PALLIATIVE CARE NURSING 3e
Quality Care to the End of Life
Marianne Matzo and Deborah Witt Sherman (Eds)
Springer Publishing Company, 2010
576 pp
ISBN 978-082615791-1
RRP $US85.00, £65.50
Review copy supplied by Elsevier Australia shop.elsevier.com.au
This third edition of Palliative Care Nursing has been updated and considerably expanded. It has 100 pages more than the second edition and the page size has been significantly increased. The book is set out in four sections. The chapters in the first section deal with the principles and practice of whole person care. The second section deals with social and professional issues in palliative care, including ethical and legal aspects, with a special emphasis on the nurses’ role. Psychosocial considerations are dealt with in the third section including matters related to communication, caring for family and relatives, and grief and bereavement. The last section contains a lot of new material regarding symptom management as well as the treatment of end-stage non-malignant disease. There are chapters on cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, renal and hepatic disease, HIV/AIDS, as well as cancer. At the end of each chapter is a section entitled Evidence-Based Practice, which critically reviews a key article from the literature. The tables at the end of each chapter in the second edition, setting out what is required to achieve competency in each of the various aspects of end-of-life care have not been included in this edition. Some of the material is included in a chapter on the development of the specialty of hospice and palliative care nursing, but the tables in the second edition underlined the importance of the knowledge and skills in clinical practice. This is an impressive volume that will be particularly useful for nurses specialising in hospice and palliative care.
Roger Woodruff (Australia), an IAHPC Board Member
(June 2010)
Book reviews
CANCER PAIN Assessment and Management 2e
Eduardo Bruera and Russell Portenoy (Eds)
Cambridge University Press, 2010
643 pp
ISBN 978-0-521-87927-9
RRP $US230.00, £145.00
This is an impressive book. Setting out to provide a comprehensive, clinically oriented and scholarly review of all aspects of cancer pain, this second edition is not only up-dated but has been considerably expanded. There are a total of 34 chapters divided into ten sections. They deal with mechanisms, epidemiology, assessment, pharmacological treatment, other interventional strategies, rehabilitation and psychological interventions, the role of antineoplastic therapy, pain in special populations (chemically dependent patients, children and the elderly), difficult pain problems, and systems of care. New chapters include those on neuraxial analgesia, the treatment of pain in hospices and institution-based palliative care programs, bone pain, and the management of cancer pain in the developing world.
The book is on the expensive side, but it would be a worthy addition to the library of any oncology service or palliative care program.
**
PAEDIATRIC PALLIATIVE MEDICINE
Oxford Specialist Handbooks in Paediatrics
Richard D.W. Hain and Satbir Singh Jassal (Eds)
Oxford University Press, 2010
306 pp
ISBN 978-0-19-923632-9
RRP $US69.95, £34.95.
In the best tradition of Oxford Handbooks, this slim, pocket-sized book provides a wealth of information about paediatric palliative medicine. Largely set out as bullet-point lists, the information is easily accessible and clinically practicable. This book should certainly be available on the library shelf in paediatric wards, for easy reference when palliative care problems arise.
**
PERSPECTIVES ON PALLIATIVE CARE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
A Global Discourse
Rita Pfund and Susan Fowler-Kerry (Eds)
Radcliffe Publishing, 2010
328 pp
ISBN 978-184619-333-0
RRP $US52.50, £29.99.
Review copy supplied by Elsevier Australia shop.elsevier.com.au
This book brings together a discussion of paediatric palliative care, from different corners of the world, and from the perspectives of both health care professionals and family members. The diversity of views is thought provoking and this book will definitely be of interest to anybody involved in paediatric palliative care.
**
PALLIATIVE CARE A Case-based Guide
Jane E. Loitman, Christian T. Sinclair, Michael J. Fisch (Eds)
Humana Press, 2010
83 pp
ISBN 978-1-60761-589-7
RRP $US59.95, £44.99.
This concise manual aims to deliver the essence of palliative care through case-based discussion. There are chapters on palliative care generally, communication issues, nutrition, psychological problems, cardiac, pulmonary, GI and pain problems as well as issues in the last hours of life. It is designed to help the health care professionals who are not specialists in hospice and palliative care, but I feel it is too brief to be a useful reference for day-to-day clinical practice. Rather, I would see it as a very useful text for teaching medical students and nurses the essence of palliative care where the carefully structured discussion of all the different patient scenarios would lead to useful discussion and learning. I was surprised at the prices quoted on Amazon.
**
CARE OF THE DYING PATIENT
David A. Fleming and John C. Hagan (Eds)
University of Missouri Press, 2010
154 pp
ISBN 978-0-8262-1890-2
RRP $US17.95, £17.05.
I found this book difficult to review. I believe that it is directed (and would be useful) to health care professionals not primarily involved in palliative care and would be understandable to an intelligent layperson or family member. It is primarily about the ethical and legal problems associated with end-of-life care and I thought the discussion of the medical and nursing aspects were too superficial. Interesting issues are raised including the decision in 2001 by a California jury who found an internist liable for reckless neglect in under-treating a dying man’s pain and ordered the physician to pay $US1.5m. The difficulties that can arise in interpreting advance directives at the moment of decision are underlined. The non-physical, psychosocial aspects of care and the value of hospice/palliative care are emphasised.
**
Roger Woodruff, MD (Australia) Dr. Woodruff is a member of the Board of IAHPC
(June 2010)
For more information go to: http://www.hospicecare.com/Bio/r_woodruff.htm
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Dr Roger Woodruff
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210 Burgundy St, Suite 9
Heidelberg, Victoria 3084
AUSTRALIA
Note: Review copies become property of IAHPC and are not returned to the author. Only palliative care related books which are previously approved will be reviewed. Due to the large number of requests, we can't provide exact dates of when books will be reviewed.
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