Kozier & Erb’s Fundamentals of Nursing, 8th Edition

Book Preface

We are pleased to bring you the 8th edition of a book that has been the foundational nursing textbook for generations of nurses. What is now considered fundamental to the practice of nursing was unimaginable to those nurses who practiced during the years of the first edition. Although the language and devices you will see in this edition differ immensely from those used by nurses before us and before you, the systematic nature of gathering data to determine health challenges and designing, implementing, and evaluating care, has not changed.

As authors, we have met the challenge of scanning the environment to determine the core knowledge and skills you need to deliver timely, sensitive, quality, and personal care to the individuals and communities with whom you work. To bring the reality of practice to you, in this edition we have introduced several new features. The Real World Reflection and Real World Practice features allow you to hear experiences of other real students and nurses relevant to the topics being covered in the chapters in their own words. Two other new features are Anatomy & Physiology Review and Drug Capsules. We know that your learning is enhanced when you revisit concepts and apply them in new situations. So, we build on your anatomy and physiology course backgrounds, plus some chemistry and pharmacology, in teaching concepts such as pain, elimination, and circulation. We hope you find these new teaching tools useful.

We have been nurse educators for many yeafc and have taught students in their first classroom nursing courses, in clinical and in the skills lab. We have taught associate degree, baccalaureate, and graduate nursing students. We know from first hand and current experience what students find the most challenging in beginning their nursing profession. Many other faculty who teach beginning nursing students review your textbook and provide confirmation that it reflects the standards they see in their settings.

We are grateful to the original authors of this textbook, Barbara Kozier and the late Glenora Erb, for setting the standard for all the editions that have followed. This book is known for being comprehensive and yet honed down to key content presented in a way novice students understand and find useful. We encourage both students and faculty who use this book to give us feedback on it. Feel free to email us directly at [email protected] are the next generation of nursing excellence!

Audrey Berman
Shirlee Snyder