Understanding Medical-Surgical Nursing 5th Edition

Book Preface

We have fully updated the material and have added exciting new information on evidence-based practice,msafety, and more. Boxed materials throughout the text present actual evidence-based care guidelines.
We continue to work hard to provide a text written at an understandable level, with features that help students understand, apply, and practice the challenging content required to function as practical/vocational nurses. We are thankful to the many students who tell us they find the book very readable, and actually enjoyable. We have been overjoyed to hear from several nursing programs that their NCLEX scores soared after adopting this te xtbook. We welcome and v alue your comments on this edition.

We continue to emphasize understanding, critical thinking, and the ability to make sound clinical judgments. We believe that a student who learns to think critically will be better able to apply information to new situations. We hope both students and instructors find this fifth edition a practical tool for learning and understanding the principles of medical-surgical nursing.

Features of the Book

We have kept our most popular features from the f irst four editions along with new ones based on reader input. Newly Added:
• Learning Outcomes to guide reading and studying.
• An exciting new way to review anatomy and physiology with more images and less text in each function and  assessment chapter.
• A Diagnostic Tests Appendix with explanations of  common tests for easy reference.
• Updated design for easier readability of tables and  care plans. Based on feedback, we ha ve kept and e xpanded the  following:
• Web links in the text to help students do further research on topics of interest. Every effort was made to use only major, established Web sites that are unlikely to change  in the near future.
• One of our most popular features, Critical Thinking Exercises. These exercises help students practice and think about what they are learning.
• Review questions at the end of each chapter. Questions have been updated and include application- and analysislevel questions, and alternate format items to reflect the NCLEX-PN.
• Suggested Answers for the Critical Thinking Exercises and Review Questions. Research supports the importance of immediate feedback to reinforce learning, so we feel strongly that students should have access to correct answers while they are studying, without having to wait for their next instructor contact. Because there can be many answers to some of the critical thinking questions, we have provided sample answers to help stimulate students’ thinking.
• Nursing Care Tips, Be Safe!, and Learning Tips help make learning easy. The Joint Commission’s National  Patient Safety Goals are reflected in many of the  safety tips.
• Pronunciation keys for new words at the beginning  of each chapter.
• Word-building footnotes throughout the chapters.
• Nursing care plans with gerontological considerations. These have been updated to reflect current practice.
• Boxed presentations of Cultural Considerations,  Evidence-Based Practice, Gerontological Issues, Home Health Hints, and Nutrition Notes. Additional boxes have been added where needed.
• A comprehensive, updated glossary of new words is  included in the appendix.

To Students: How to Use This Book
Learning outcomes are provided for each chapter. Review them before reading and then go back and check to be sure you understand them.

You will find a list of new words and their pronunciations at the beginning of each chapter. These words appear in bold at either their first use or most relevant use in a chapter, and they also appear in the glossary at the end of the book. By learning the meanings of these words as you encounter them, you will increase your understanding of the material. Man y of these words are also broken down where they are used, so you can see how the parts of each word make up the whole.
You also will find learning tips to increase your understanding and retention of the material. You may want to develop your own memory techniques in addition to those pro vided. (If you think of a good one, send it to us and you may f ind it in the next edition!) Many of the learning tips have been developed and used in our own classrooms. We find them helpful in fostering understanding of complex concepts or as memory aids. However, we want to stress that memorization is not the primary focus of the te xt but rather a foundation for under – standing and thinking about more comple x information.

Understanding and application will serve you far better than memorization when dealing with new situations.
Each chapter includes brief critical thinking case studies designed to help you apply material that has been presented.
A series of questions related to the case will help you integrate the material with what you already know. These questions emphasize critical thinking, which is based on a foundation of recall and understanding of material. To enhance your learning, try to answer the questions before checking the answers. 4while they are studying, without having to wait for their next instructor contact. Because there can be many answers to some of the critical thinking questions, we have provided sample answers to help stimulate students’ thinking.
• Nursing Care Tips, Be Safe!, and Learning Tips help make learning easy. The Joint Commission’s National  Patient Safety Goals are reflected in many of the  safety tips.
• Pronunciation keys for new words at the beginning  of each chapter.
• Word-building footnotes throughout the chapters.
• Nursing care plans with gerontological considerations. These have been updated to reflect current practice.
• Boxed presentations of Cultural Considerations,  Evidence-Based Practice, Gerontological Issues, Home Health Hints, and Nutrition Notes. Additional boxes have been added where needed.
• A comprehensive, updated glossary of new words is  included in the appendix.
To Students: How to Use This Book Learning outcomes are provided for each chapter. Review them before reading and then go back and check to be sure you understand them.

You will find a list of new words and their pronunciations at the beginning of each chapter. These words appear in bold at either their first use or most relevant use in a chapter, and they also appear in the glossary at the end of the book. By learning the meanings of these words as you encounter them, you will increase your understanding of the material. Man y of these words are also broken down where they are used, so you can see how the parts of each word make up the whole.

You also will find learning tips to increase your understanding and retention of the material. You may want to develop your own memory techniques in addition to those pro vided. (If you think of a good one, send it to us and you may f ind it in the next edition!) Many of the learning tips have been developed and used in our own classrooms. We find them helpful in fostering understanding of complex concepts or as memory aids. However, we want to stress that memorization is not the primary focus of the te xt but rather a foundation for under – standing and thinking about more comple x information.
Understanding and application will serve you far better than memorization when dealing with new situations. Each chapter includes brief critical thinking case studies designed to help you apply material that has been presented. A series of questions related to the case will help you integrate the material with what you already know. These questions emphasize critical thinking, which is based on a foundation of recall and understanding of material. To enhance your learning, try to answer the questions before checking the answers.

Generic medication names are a must for you to know for NCLEX-PN. We continue to provide both the generic and trade names for medications to help you prepare for both the NCLEX and nursing practice.

Review questions appear at the end of each chapter to help you prepare for chapter tests, and also for the NCLEX-PN.
Again, to assess your learning, try to answer the questions before looking up the answers at the back of the book.
Chapter reference lists provide sources for additional reading material. Websites have been included in many chapters.
We believe it is important for you to interact with current technology to expand your information resources.
The following appendices are included for easy reference:
• Normal adult reference laboratory values
• Answers with rationales to chapter review questions
• Common medical abbreviations
• Common prefixes and suffixes to help learn word-building techniques
• Glossary of new words
• Common diagnostic tests

Student Resources
There is an abundance of additional student resources for this edition of Understanding Medical Surgical Nursing from the exercises in the accompan ying Student Workbook to the digital assets found on DavisPlus (access code is available on the inside front co ver of your book). The Chapter Resource Guide found on DavisPlus provides colorful and informative maps for each chapter outlining the specific resources.