Today I received my copy of the new book
"Fundamentals of Mental Health Nursing", edited by Victoria Clarke and Andrew Walsh, and published by
Oxford University Press.
About the book The cover of the book reveals that it "Covers all the core topics in [the] pre-registration nursing curricular" and that it is an "Innovative patient-centred and case-based approach to Mental Health Nursing".
Written primarily by mental health nurses, it is intended as an introductory text for students studying to become mental health nurses. Rather than being a text book full of information for the student to memorise, it uses real life and fictional scenario's to explain how nursing skills can be applied, and to enable the student to develop their own skills.
The book includes sample care plans, references, recommended further reading, and useful web addresses, as well as experiences from real "service users" and carers. It also comes with a free online resource centre, providing video clips to demonstrate the application of theory, quizzes, an interactive glossary, and sample CV's.
Apart from the fact that it contains a full page experience written by me (woohoo!), the book smells nice, which I think is a perfectly logical reason to buy the book. Oh, and the fact that if you're studying mental health it will probably help with that as well. I also think it may be a useful tool for anyone who is caring for a "service user" for many reasons, not least of all because it explains various jargon and contains many links to the websites of organisations that offer support for both sufferers and carers. Although not an avid reader, I will try to work my way through this book, inhaling each page as I go. The discussion points are likely to raise interesting topics for blog posts.
About the editors Victoria has worked as a mental health nurse for 26 years, and within nurse education for the past 17 years. Her current post is Head of Division/Director of Quality (Mental Health) at Birmingham City University.
Andrew is a senior lecturer at Birmingham City University where he teaches pre-registration mental health nurses. He previously spent over 20 years working in a variety of mental health care settings. I don't know why, but I always imagined him to be younger than that. Anyway, he seems to be a very nice man and he also contributes to a fairly new
mental health nursing blog as well as writing his own
hobby blog about Tudor history, although I'm sure he's not
that old! I'm not sure if the mental health blog will be as punchy as Mental Nurse in it's approach, but if you pop along you may find a bourbon biscuit or two.
About the book
The cover of the book reveals that it "Covers all the core topics in [the] pre-registration nursing curricular" and that it is an "Innovative patient-centred and case-based approach to Mental Health Nursing".
Written primarily by mental health nurses, it is intended as an introductory text for students studying to become mental health nurses. Rather than being a text book full of information for the student to memorise, it uses real life and fictional scenario's to explain how nursing skills can be applied, and to enable the student to develop their own skills.
The book includes sample care plans, references, recommended further reading, and useful web addresses, as well as experiences from real "service users" and carers. It also comes with a free online resource centre, providing video clips to demonstrate the application of theory, quizzes, an interactive glossary, and sample CV's.
Apart from the fact that it contains a full page experience written by me (woohoo!), the book smells nice, which I think is a perfectly logical reason to buy the book. Oh, and the fact that if you're studying mental health it will probably help with that as well. I also think it may be a useful tool for anyone who is caring for a "service user" for many reasons, not least of all because it explains various jargon and contains many links to the websites of organisations that offer support for both sufferers and carers. Although not an avid reader, I will try to work my way through this book, inhaling each page as I go. The discussion points are likely to raise interesting topics for blog posts.
About the editors
Victoria has worked as a mental health nurse for 26 years, and within nurse education for the past 17 years. Her current post is Head of Division/Director of Quality (Mental Health) at Birmingham City University.
Andrew is a senior lecturer at Birmingham City University where he teaches pre-registration mental health nurses. He previously spent over 20 years working in a variety of mental health care settings. I don't know why, but I always imagined him to be younger than that. Anyway, he seems to be a very nice man and he also contributes to a fairly new mental health nursing blog as well as writing his own hobby blog about Tudor history, although I'm sure he's not that old! I'm not sure if the mental health blog will be as punchy as Mental Nurse in it's approach, but if you pop along you may find a bourbon biscuit or two.