Book Review
Essentials of Computers for Nurses (2nd edition)
Virginia K Saba, Kathleen McCormick
ISBN: 007105418; 1996; 636 pages; McGraw Hill New York;
Ailsa N'ha WineJreyda
Flinders University, SA
It is a truism that the nurse's professional and personal worlds are being deeply effected by the computing revolution. Yet truisms have their basis in facts and this book attempts to cover this almost exponential technological revolution in nursing and does it well. However, the title is a misnomer as the book is mainly targeted at budding nursing informatics rather than general nurses. It is a book that is recommended to neophyte members of the Nursing-I network on the World Wide Web by the more experienced members. However, it really is two books in one and as such some readers may find it too filling and others unsatisfying.
It is difficult to condense into one book information on the historical elements of the computer, nursing and nursing informatics as well as computer systems and nursing implications, yet this ishow the book has been structured. One wonders whether it would have been more appropriate to direct the readers to other texts especially whendiscussing historical perspectives both of computing and of nursing. There are some excellent texts on generic computing in The Complete Idiots Guide to .., series published by Prentice-Hall and the ... For Dummies series by Woodslane. This is also pertinent to the sections on 'Computing hardware', 'Computing software' and 'Data processing'.
The other alternative is to write a full text on these elements alone which would then make this book title a more appropriate one. The last two sections of the book 'Computer systems' and 'Nursing applications' take up two thirds of the book and relate mainly to nursing informatics. It is an excellent introduction to this topic and allows the reader insight into this burgeoning field. It covers some areas in depth especially in the community health area which is not surprising with one of the authors, Saba, being an author of a community health computing program. Nursing administration, nursing practice, critical care and outcomes, and guidelines to computing applications are also well introduced, however the chapter on research needed more substance.
Once again it would have been better if these two sections of the book were expanded into a fuller text on nursing informatics. Generally, this is a good introductory text to nursing informatics.
However, it is entirely North American based which can be off-putting yet also allows the reader to see what is possible in their area of nursing. It is a book that gives a taste of what is happening rather than a full meal and leaves the reader asking for more. As a reference book on nursing informatics it is well recommended.
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