Leadership Roles and Management Functions in Nursing Theory and Application (fourth edition), Bessie L. Marquis and Carol J. Huston. Philadelphia, Pa, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2003. 651 pages, softcover.

This text consists of 7 sections and 24 chapters. The sections are (1) a new approach to leadership management (2 chapters), (2) roles and functions in planning (4 chapters), (3) roles and functions in organizing (3 chapters), (4) roles and functions in staffing (3 chapters), (5) roles and functions in directing (5 chapters), (6) roles and functionsin controlling (4 chapters), and (7) professional and social issues in leadership and management (3 chapters).

The authors are both from California State University. Their long relationship has stimulated deeply innovative and useful approaches to management comprehension. The growing insight into the sublties of management in general plays a useful role in the application to nursing. The burgeoning growth of this area needs to be used productively in nursing care to expedite the nursing care of patients. This adds greatly to the quality of interdisciplinary care and how patients can benefit to a great extent. Thus, an ethical overlay is present as well as stronger scientific input. The very rapid growth of both physical and behavioral sciences will be a constant prod to clinicians to constantly move with this pace and to develop methods of care that make nursing care more precise and ease the stress on patients. If all registered nurses were able to function in a manner portrayed in this text there would be a great increase in the respect and admiration for nurses.