REVIEWS
administration, mechanism of action, adverse
reactions, interactions, effects on laboratory results, contraindications, cautions, nursing considerations, and patient teaching information. The
text is comprehensive and informative.
In addition to the extensive medication information, this book does a great job of covering
all aspects of medication safety. The first chapter
introduces the importance of communication,
education, use of technology, and additional strategies to reduce medication errors. There are safetyrelated appendices about preventing medication
errors, common pediatric medications involved in
errors, and elder care medication tips. It would be
helpful for perioperative nurses if this book identified medications that are commonly used in the
OR and highlighted safe practices for medication
labeling on the sterile field.
It is difficult to create a book that covers all
aspects of every existing medication in a lightweight, easy-to-read format. The publishers of
this edition took this into consideration and created a more appealing design with a larger font,
highlighted backgrounds, and logos and icons
to reduce the amount of text. For example,
there are highlighted boxes to show new medications, new indications for use, and dosage
adjustments for certain populations. Safety features include safety alerts, use of tall man lettering (ie, differentiating look-alike and soundalike medications by capitalizing some letters in
the medication name [eg, AlprazOLam, LorasEPam]), look-alike/sound-alike black box warnings, and overdose signs and symptoms. Icons
are used to designate medications that are also
available in Canada, over-the-counter medications, off-label uses, and liquid medications that
contain alcohol. The photographic guide in the
middle of this text has been expanded in this
edition to include nearly 400 actual size photographs of pills.
Because this handbook no longer easily fits
in the hand or a pocket, all of the information
in this 32nd edition can be accessed on mobile
www.aornjournal.org
electronic devices. However, in a fraction of
the time it takes to scratch off the code on the
back cover of the book, type in the web site
address, register personal information, create a
username and password, and enter a 12-digit
alphanumeric code for a free one-year subscription, readers could have typed that same medication name into an Internet search engine and
obtained similar results. Although I tend to be
technologically savvy, I would still recommend
using the paper edition, unless the next edition
of this handbook comes out as an application
for mobile telephones.
KARA L. GASIOROWSKI
MSN, RN, CNOR, ONC
PERIOPERATIVE PATIENT SAFETY SPECIALIST
NEW YORK PRESBYTERIAN – WEILL CORNELL
NEW YORK, NY
doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2011.10.006
Essentials of Nursing Research:
Appraising Evidence for Nursing
Practice
7th edition
Denise F. Polit and Cheryl Tatano Beck
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
2011, 624 pages, paperback
Nursing research and evidencebased practice (EBP) are heavily
used catch phrases today. Nursing research can be defined as
the systematic discovery of new
nursing knowledge; however,
there is no unified or consensusdriven definition for EBP. Instead, EBP is an umbrella term used to describe the processes by
which practitioners apply the best available evidence to answer clinical questions. Evidence constitutes published research findings as well as
other credible sources of information, such as
AORN Journal
307
February 2012
Vol 95
No 2
consensus statements from professional organizations (eg, AORN), internal quality improvement
data, community practice standards, and knowledge gained through clinical experience. Evidence
rating is often used to evaluate the quality of
evidence as it relates to effectiveness, but other
scales can be used to evaluate the quality of evidence in relation to feasibility, appropriateness,
and meaningfulness.
With providing this information as a backdrop,
the authors have updated Essentials of Nursing
Research by placing greater emphasis on EBP as
well as presenting new material relating to medical research methodology, qualitative methods,
and interpreting research results. Although this
textbook is primarily designed for nursing students, it can easily be adopted for use in the
service sector. This edition is organized into five
main parts:





Overview of nursing research and its role in
EBP,
Preliminary steps in the appraisal of evidence,
Designs for nursing research,
Data collection, and
Data analysis and interpretation.
In addition to providing a broad overview of the
nursing process, the authors have been inclusive
of both quantitative and qualitative research methods. This is important because the research question should dictate the research method used. This
text provides fundamental information about both
types of research in an integrated fashion. These
features, along with high-quality references at the
end of each chapter, make this book stand out as
an important resource among nursing research
survey texts.
Other features make this text worthy of consideration for the busy perioperative clinician,
educator, advanced practice nurse, or manager.
There is an entire chapter devoted to reading
and critiquing research reports, as well as the
308
AORN Journal
REVIEWS
inclusion of four full-length recently published
nursing research articles. This chapter and its
related resources would be very helpful for clinicians who are planning to implement journal
clubs in their units. The chapter on literature
reviews provides helpful strategies for searching electronic databases for the best available
evidence. Finally, there is a chapter on systematic reviews (ie, rigorous reviews of multiple
quantitative and qualitative studies, which can
be classified as meta-analyses and meta-syntheses,
respectively). Although systematic reviews are not
new, they are becoming more central in nursing
as more clinicians have access to the Cochrane,
Campbell, and Joanna Briggs Institute databases
of systematic reviews. The glossaries of terms
and helpful graphics and tables that are found
throughout the book are an added bonus.
Although EBP has recently gained attention
in the United States, this movement has been
well underway in the United Kingdom, Canada,
Europe, and Oceania (ie, New Zealand and
Australia) since the 1990s. Another phrase,
evidence-informed practice, is gaining acceptance as a preferred term for EBP because it
more readily points to the process of accessing,
appraising, and using evidence to inform clinical practice. These are critical steps for any
clinician who is attempting to answer a clinical
question using the best available evidence. This
book will certainly help any nurse involved in
this process or clinicians and nurse leaders who
desire greater understanding about nursing research and resources related to it.
DAPHNE STANNARD
PhD, RN, CCRN, CCNS, FCCM
ASSOCIATE CHIEF NURSE RESEARCHER AND
PERIANESTHESIA CLINICAL NURSE SPECIALIST
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
SAN FRANCISCO MEDICAL CENTER
SAN FRANCISCO, CA
doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2011.10.009