Book Review
Women's health: A handbook for nurses
Catriona Sutherland, Sue Hinchcliff and Rosemary Rogers (eds)
ISBN: 0-443061-76-9; 2001; 380 pages; Churchill Livingstone, London;
Diane J Tofts
Senior Lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery,
De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom
This interesting book by Catriona Sutherland provides a first point of reference for Women's Health issues and is not intended as a comprehensive text on the subject. This would be a useful text for nurses and students of nursing working directly or indirectly in women's health and although specifically aimed at nurses would also be useful for other professionals involved in women's health such as youth workers and educational support workers.
The book is divided into logical sections titled psychological and political aspects of women's health, promoting health, ethico-legal issues, young women, prime time, maturity, sensitive issues, common conditions and disorders and some common treatments, procedures and investigations. At the beginning of each section there is a comprehensive index of what is covered and most have a brief introduction to the content covered. It is an easy to read book with clear headings and tables, content cross-referenced to other parts within the book and a comprehensive list of references, further reading and useful resources at the end of each section.
The content is up to date, relevant and evidence based from a wide range of literature and other resources. Included throughout are boxes highlighting nursing issues/questions arising from the text which are useful in motivating the reader to undertake further reading and critical think about their own practice in relation to women's health. There are also boxes containing the key points from each section which provides a summary of the main points for the reader. It was pleasing to see some of the more sensitive issues in women's health were included such as female genital mutilation and lesbian health issues.
This book is not without criticism however. It was disappointing that there is no reference to either the Social Exclusion Report (1999), which is highly relevant to the information/discussion on adolescent pregnancy, or the Sexual Health Strategy (2001) which is relevant to the whole area of women's health. Although this Strategy was probably published after the book was completed it has been in the public domain and debated for some time.
The book is aimed at the UK market with the discussion focussed on UK law and government, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and other relevant body's policies and guidelines. The author has included the addresses and telephone numbers of various organisations for readers to gain further information which is useful but in today's technological world the inclusion of website and/or email addresses would have been useful, particularly for overseas readers.
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