Book Review
Nursing Calculations, 4th ed.
J Gatford and R Anderson
ISBN: 978-0-4430-4920-0; 1997; 134 pages; Churchill Livingstone Melbourne;
David M Gillham
Lecturer, University of South Australia, Underdale Campus, SA
Gatford and Anderson's fourth edition is a very useful calculation text suitable for nurses. The text is particularly helpful for the large number of nursing students who experience difficulty with arithmetical skills.
The authors emphasise the aim of their text is to teach relevant arithmetical skills and do not intend the book as a pharmacology reference. This aim is most appropriate as the ability to carry out safe medication calculation is firmly based on arithmetical skill. The text includes many exercises and answers, including revision answers which refer students back to appropriate sections if errors are made.
The first 52 pages concentrate on basic arithmetic highly relevant to nursing calculation. This section contains clear explanation and detailed worked examples and is very suitable for beginning nursing students.
The remainder of the text contains concise and clear explanation of dosage calculation, solution dilution and strengths, intravenous infusion and paediatric dosage. A minor criticism of the sections on intravenous infusion and injection dosage is the lack of visual explanation. Particularly, in the intravenous infusion section, nursing students whose clinical time is often limited, may not fully make the required links to clinical practice. This section appears to assume nursing students already understand the operation of infusion pumps and giving sets. However, this problem could be eliminated by explanation to accompany the text in the nursing laboratory or through clinical placement.
The inclusion of volumetric infusion pump questions is an improvement on previous editions. The extension of this section may increase the value of this text for registered nurses wishing to update their calculation skills in this specific area.
In summary, this is a concise and valuable text. I applaud the authors for their emphasis on arithmetic and recommend the book as a beginning text, supported by adequate classroom instruction.
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