Authors

  1. Christman, Luther P. PhD, RN, FAAN

Article Content

Quick Reference to Wound Care, Donna Oddo, Pamela Brown, and Julie Maloy. Gaithersburg, MD, Aspen Publishers, Inc., 2001. 259 pages, softcover, $49.00.

 

This text about wound care has four sections. They are (1) assessment and documentation (2 chapters); (2) basics of wound management (3 chapters); (3) wound types commonly seen by health care professionals (7 chapters) and (4) issues specific to home health and skilled nursing facilities (2 chapters). Two additional authors contributed to the book.

 

Each section goes into the fine details of each particular type of wound management. This knowledge of final detail should enable effective management and stimulate the rate of healing. The basic information in this book, when mastered by nurses, will enable them to keep pace with the rapid changes in care that continuously springs from the unceasing flow of knowledge, new drugs and more advanced technical equipment.

 

In these days of both husbands and wives working full time, frequent job changes, long commutes, longer work life and all the many social variables the percentage of accidents and wounds are prone to increase. Effective management will be expected and, since nurses will be the major managers of wounds, the expectations for competence in nurses will rise. If all nurses had the knowledge in this book, as a basis for growth, they would be better able to stay in step with the increasing developments in wound care. When viewed nationally a vast amount of wound care could be controlled and reduced if caregivers stayed abreast of the steady growth of techniques.

 

The section on wound types makes the point very clear. With all the means for patients to learn about care now available on websites (and expanding) there will be raised expectations for providers to perform at advanced levels. The need to be constantly in a learning motif will never cease in this milieu. To protect against legal pursuit it is necessary to upgrade steadily one's clinical skills.