Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents: The nature of nursing: Historical and contemporary nursing practice -- Nursing education, research and evidence-based practice -- Nursing theories and conceptual frameworks -- Legal aspects of nursing -- Values, ethics and advocacy -- Contemporary health care: Health care delivery systems -- Community nursing and care continuity -- Home care -- Nursing informatics -- The nursing process: Critical thinking and the nursing process -- Assessing -- Diagnosing-- Planning -- Implementing and evaluating -- Documenting and reporting -- Health beliefs and practices: Health promotion -- Health, wellness and illness -- Culture and heritage -- Complementary and alternative healing modalities -- Life span development: Concepts of growth and development -- Promoting health from conception through adolescence -- Promoting health in young and middle-aged adults -- Promoting health in elders -- Promoting family health -- Integral aspects of nursing: Caring -- Communicating -- Teaching -- Leading, managing and delegating -- Assessing health: Vital signs -- Health assessment -- Integral components of client care: Asepsis -- Safety -- Hygiene -- Diagnostic testing -- Medications -- Skin integrity and wound care -- Perioperative nursing -- Promoting psychosocial health: Sensory perception -- Self-concept -- Sexuality -- Spirituality -- Stress and coping -- Loss, grieving and death -- Promoting physiologic health: Activity and exercise -- Sleep -- Pain management -- Nutrition -- Urinary elimination -- Fecal elimination -- Oxygenation -- Circulation -- Fluid, electrolyte and acid-base balance --