Editors: Kate Johnson, Karen Rawlings-Anderson
This book is very clearly laid out with one topic per page. The style is crisp and to-the-point. It claims not to be a ‘specialist text’, and I would agree with that, although it manages to cover subjects ranging from ACS, interventional cardiology, congenital heart disease to cardiac rehabilitation and more.
The format is excellent and follows that utilized by the classic Oxford medical series of handbooks. There are spaces to add notes and customise to one’s own needs.
It presents concise information often using a bullet-point style, which I feel makes the layout very reader-friendly.
It covers a wide range of topics, giving one just enough information in the acute setting, but also with pointers of where to look for more information on a given subject. The guide to symbols and abbreviations was good, although a glossary would also have been useful.
I like the book very much, but the one thing I found slightly patronising was that it fell into the trap of feeling it had to remind us about ‘reassurance’ for patients on a regular basis in order for it to call itself a handbook for nurses.
I feel this book would be highly useful to nurses starting their career in cardiology, rather than as a text for nurses who have worked in the cardiac setting for a while.
ISBN
ISBN-10: 0198570721
ISBN-13: 978-0198570721
Publisher
Oxford University Press; 1st edition (2007)
Paperback
475 pages
Reviewer
Andria Haffenden
Chest Pain Practitioner
Musgrove Park Hospital
