688 • AORN JOURNAL

OCTOBER 2006, VOL 84, NO 4 Reviews

the cartoons or tongue-in-cheek exaggerations of ourhealth care system that arepresented in the book; humorhas its place, after all. Thisbook includes facts and infor-mation useful to both pa-tients and nurses, and it canbe used as a resource andteaching tool long beforethere is an actual need for theinformation.

This book is available fromFree Press, a Division ofSimon & Schuster, Inc, 1230Avenue of the Americas, NewYork, NY 10020.

HELEN BECKWITHRN, CNORSTAFF NURSE

VAIL VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER

VAIL, COLO

Foundations inNursing andHealth Care:Profiles andPortfolios of

EvidenceRuth Pearce

2003, 124 pages£14 softcover

This book provides a con-cise and well-written look atthe development and use ofa professional portfolio.Nursing students are guidedthrough the process of organ-izing and setting up theirfirst portfolio. Nursing stu-dents sometimes see portfo-lio development as busy-work or just something that

is required for acourse, but thechapters on link-ing theory to prac-tice and why aportfolio is useful willanswer many questions fromstudents as to why develop-ing a portfolio is important.

This book does a particu-larly good job of illustratinghow a nurse might use expe-riential case studies to illus-trate professional growth andhow he or she might linkthese case studies to a careerladder more effectively. For along time, nurses have haddifficulty articulating whateffects their actions have onpatient care. The author uses acase study of an unreasonableworkload to show readershow to use case studies toeffectively highlight problemareas. The book also examinesthe issues of continuing pro-fessional education, applyingfor particular positions, anddeveloping a focused andeffective curriculum vitae. Allof these topics are coveredwell and will be useful to anew graduate.

A CD-ROM is includedwith the book, and it containsnumerous templates for docu-ments useful to students andprofessional nurses, such asexamples of portfolios, cur-riculum vitae formats, andresumes. The templates areeasy to use and offer a nicestarting point for someonenew to the process of careerdevelopment.

The only drawback to thebook is one of language. Thebook was written and pub-

lished in the UnitedKingdom, and someof the language mayconfuse American stu-dents. For example,concepts such as aca-

demic levels of certificate,diploma, and degree by stu-dent years in a “programme”or applications to a “trust”might require some explana-tion for US students. Overall,this is a very good book withsome nice features, but itshould be evaluated carefullybefore it is adopted for stu-dent use.

This book is available fromNelson Thornes Ltd, DeltaPlace, 27 Bath Rd, Chelten-ham GL53 7TH, UnitedKingdom.

LESLEY HENDERSONRN, MSN, CNOR

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

DEPARTMENT OF NURSING

GEORGIA HIGHLANDS COLLEGE

ROME, GA

PNDS @ Work:Clinical

Competenciesand Job

DescriptionsSusan V. M. Kleinbeck

2005, 64 pages$15 member/$19 nonmember

softcover

This book is one in a seriesof five that describes how thePerioperative Nursing Data Set(PNDS) vocabulary can beused in everyday perioperativenursing practice and adapted

AORN JOURNAL • 689

Reviews OCTOBER 2006, VOL 84, NO 4

for use in any facility. ThePNDS is described as a diction-ary of terms or a universal lan-guage relating specifically toall phases of perioperativenursing practice from pread-mission to discharge. ThePNDS offers nurses a way todemonstrate their competencyto practice and their contribu-tions to patient outcomes usinga language that is recognized,computerized, and standard-ized. The widespreaduse of this lan-guage in perioper-ative settingscould improve theoverall delivery ofcare and provideadditional standardi-zation for the educa-tion of perioperativepractitioners. Thishow-to guide is anasset to understanding andincorporating the PNDS vocab-ulary into the perioperativenursing arena.

This book is aimed at peri-operative nurse educators anddepartment managers. It illus-trates how the PNDS can beused to successfully reflectpatient outcomes in compe-tency statements and jobdescriptions for perioperativenurses. The PNDS offers avalid framework to establishevidence-based patient out-come competencies alongwith measurable and observ-able interventions to demon-strate those competencies.Examples of competencystatements using PNDS out-comes and PNDS interven-tions in perioperative jobdescriptions are provided.

Five steps are outlined forimplementing a competencyprogram, including how to• determine clinical compe-

tency components, • integrate the PNDS into

the competency program, • develop competency docu-

mentation,• train the validators, and • establish a systematic cal-

endar for validation. The PNDS terms are

codified, which allowsfor an easy method ofmeasurement. Theauthor also suggestschoosing the mostimportant competen-cies or those associ-ated with the great-est risk and limitingthe competency

assessments toapproximately eight to 16 peryear in order to avoid a bur-densome process. Using thePNDS vocabulary to write jobdescriptions ensures that theyare an accurate reflection ofnursing skills. In addition,PNDS interventions can becomputerized, making evalu-ations easier.

The book is written in awell-organized, how-to for-mat and is filled with chartsand brightly colored pictures.Although the pictures oftenare distracting and not clearlyrelevant to the content, thecharts are excellent tools forillustrating how to apply thePNDS to specific policies,competencies, and jobdescriptions. The layout of thebook also is distracting, withsentences and paragraphsoften interrupted by charts

and pictures. Overall, howev-er, this book is a helpful refer-ence for building the PNDSlanguage into perioperativepractice.

This book is available fromAORN, 2170 S Parker Road,Suite 300, Denver, CO 80231.

ELISABETH CRAIGRN, BSN, CNOR

STAFF NURSE AND QUALITY ASSURANCE

COORDINATOR

SALINE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

BENTON, ARK

Forensic Nurse:The New Role ofthe Nurse in Law

EnforcementSerita Stevens

2004, 241 pages$23.95 hardcover

If you have ever wonderedwhether forensic nursing isfor you, or even if you arejust curious, I highly recom-mend this book. It is an eyeopener for those of us whoseonly knowledge of forensicscomes from television showssuch as “CSI” and “Law &Order.” The author is a mem-ber of the InternationalAssociation of ForensicNurses (IAFN), and in thisbook, she has written a com-pilation of stories of her IAFNcolleagues’ and her ownexperiences. The work of aforensic nurse is told realisti-cally and without the Holly-wood glamour—this book isnot for the faint of heart.

Although forensic nursingis a relatively new term, it was