Book Review
Issues in Australian Nursing 5
Edited by Genevieve Gray
339 pages; Churchill Livingstone Melbourne;
Alan Pearson
Professor of Nursing; Director, Deakin Institute of Nursing Research, Deakin University, Geelong VIC
The Issues in Australian Nursing series, edited by Genevieve Gray and Rosalie Pratt, has acted as a vehicle for the dissemination of some of Australia's leading nursing academics and clinicians and each book in the series has been both eagerly awaited and enthusiastically welcomed in Australia and internationally. The nurse as clinician is an interesting addition. I have to admit to a degree of surprise in relation to the content of a book which I expected to focus on the nature of the role and activities of the nurse as a clinician.
Essentially, a total of twenty-one chapters explore health and nursing largely in relation to specific cultural or ethnic groups (such as Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, migrants and prisoners), a limited range of client groups (such as older people, people who are dying, people withHN/ AIDS ), and a small range of nursing practices and specialties (such as immunisation, nephrology, orthopaedics and rehabilitation).
Although most of the issues examined are relevant to most nurses, I suspect that the book will have limited appeal to those who do not have a community health orientation. Given the title, I anticipated something with a somewhat wider appeal. Having said that, the contemporary importance of both the issues and client groups which make up most of the book's focus is not denied. Nor is the quality of the writing or the editing. The two chapters on dying and palliative care are particularly illuminating and engaging (by Margaret O'Connor and Beverley Taylor) and will be of use to nurses practising in diverse settings.
Similarly, John Miller, Geraldine Dolan and Peter Boswarva's chapter on HN/ AIDS and the nursing practitioner is well written and ofmuch relevance to current practice. This is a book which presents information and ideas concerning contemporary issues which are rarely featured in general texts and are thus accessible in specialist journals only. I recommend it as a reference text for community health agencies and hospital and university libraries.
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