Online Resource Library

Fast Facts: Prostate Cancer covers a wide range of topics related to prostate cancer in a concise, informative and evidenced-based fashion. With the lives of more and more patients and their families being touched by prostate cancer this book, with its readily accessible and up-to-date information, will be helpful to those who provide their care and treatment.

Osteoarthritis represents a massive and growing problem for our aging and overweight society: all health professionals reading this book will have encountered osteoarthritis in the clinic, if not personally. Fast Facts: Osteoarthritis provides an up-to-date, clinically relevant, all-in-one reference for all providers caring for individuals with osteoarthritis. This second edition includes comprehensive updates, including new information on epidemiology, risk factors, and pharmacological as well as non-pharmacological treatments.

Fast Facts: Lymphoma aims to outline both a historical and up-to- date perspective of the diagnosis and management of Hodgkin and non- Hodgkin lymphomas. Fundamentally, this book should impart a clear understanding of the nature of lymphoma and the principles of its management. It should therefore be of use to training doctors and specialist nurses in the field of haemato-oncology, as well as being of interest to the inquiring patient or carer who wishes to know more about lymphoma.

Fast Facts: Erectile
 Dysfunction provides an in-depth view of the overall management
 of erectile dysfunction and will be valuable to any healthcare professional who 
encounters men with the condition, particularly as the number of therapeutic options is increasing and patients expect to receive
 straightforward and effective treatment.

Celiac disease is one of the commonest lifelong disorders in the Western world, causing considerable ill health and increases in mortality. Fast Facts: Celiac Disease is highly readable with informative illustrations and provides an up-to-date account of this common yet easily missed condition. It is an excellent clinical resource for the primary care team, gastroenterologists in training and anyone who wants to know more about this challenging disease.

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), particularly human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, are an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. They are responsible for the loss of many productive years and have a disproportionate impact on adolescents and young adults. Fast Facts: Sexually Transmitted Infections provides a useful summary of current thinking on the diagnosis and effective management of these wide-ranging infections.

Fast Facts: Inflammatory Bowel Disease encompasses recent developments relating to the cause, investigation and management of IBD. We have aimed the book at non-specialist doctors, nurses, stoma therapists, dieticians, psychologists, counselors, social workers and other professionals involved in the care of patients with IBD. Medical students should also find it helpful. We hope too that patients with IBD may benefit from reading this overview of their chronic illness.

COPD was estimated to be the twelfth leading cause of morbidity
and the sixth leading cause of death worldwide in 1990. Of all the
major diseases, COPD presents the fastest increasing healthcare burden. This 134-page eBook assists all health professionals in a better understanding of the treatment of COPD. This second edition was published in August 2009, and includes a dictionary, index and easy-to-read format to ensure the content is as accessible as possible.

Fast Facts: Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia provides a concise overview of the pathophysiology, diagnosis and 
treatment of BPH. 
This 95-page eBook will assist all health professionals in a better understanding of the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia. This edition was published in July 2011, and includes a dictionary, index and easy-to-read format to ensure the content is as accessible as possible.

This 112-page eBook provides a brief synopsis of current understanding and strategies related to bipolar disorder. We hope it will be of interest to anyone whose mission is to treat patients with bipolar disorder and to champion their cause. This includes primary care physicians with an interest in the disorder, psychiatrists, therapists, nurses and medical students, all of whom can provide help to individual patients in their care.

Draining wounds, fistulae, and peristomal wounds present challenges to nurses and can cause significant concern to patients and their carers. The management of these wounds can be complicated—depending on the individual patient, the wound, the resources available, and the skill of the nurse. This chapter discusses draining wounds, fistulae, and peristomal wounds.

The application of evidence-based practice to health-care management is relevant to people at all levels of health care—and this includes the nurse manager, who is responsible for the overall coordination of nursing team resources.

As consumers of health services have become more knowledgeable about their care and treatment, their expectations have risen. There has been a similar growth in the knowledge and expectations of the relatives of those receiving care—relatives want and expect high standards of care and treatment. This chapter explores some of the background to relatives’ concerns and suggest strategies that can be used by nurse managers when dealing with a concerned relative.

Nurses as ‘knowledge workers’ will stay committed to their employers if they are provided with the resources for interesting work, and if they are able to learn, grow and use all of their skills. If such an environment is not forthcoming, nurses, like other knowledge workers, will move on. This presents nurse managers with challenges in creating an environment in which nurse practitioners can flourish and perform effectively.

Hostility and overt aggression have been identified as factors that have a significant influence on the delivery of clinical care (Gournay 2001) and on the recruitment and retention of staff (Jackson, Clare & Mannix 2002). Such hostility is not restricted to interactions with patients and their families; it also occurs in interactions between staff members.

All managers rely on information to make decisions. It is therefore essential that nurse managers understand how to use information effectively. In the past, nurses have tended to see technology as dehumanising and counterproductive to the art and science of nursing (Ammenwerth et al. 2003).However, those now entering the nursing profession have been educated with computers and are aware of the possibilities that the Internet and other computer information systems can provide. Attitudes have shifted within the modern nursing workforce (Richards 2001). There is now a move to a requirement of having computers at the place care is provided through hand-held devices (Erdley 2006). Not only is this point-of-care technology seen as providing safer care but also saves time, allowing nurses to spend more time providing nursing care (Smith et al. 2005).

A budget is a formalised planning tool used by management to compare expected revenues with expected expenses for the year (Finkler & Kovner2000). The objective of budgeting is to maximise organisational resources to meet short-term and long-term goals (Marquis & Huston 2003). A budget is therefore a written financial plan that aims to control resources (Huber 2000).

There are many areas in contemporary nursing that involve far-reaching ethical issues—such as informed consent, substitute decision-making, effective use of health-care resources, moral distress of staff, and conflict between staff and patient’s family members. This chapter examines some common ethical issues that nursing managers face, the notion of a moral community and ways to combat moral distress among staff.

The current global shortage of nurses has created a highly competitive market in the recruitment of nurses. Health services are competing with each other to recruit suitably qualified nurses and the health industry as a whole is trying to attract school and university students to undertake nursing studies. This competitive environment has ensured that a critical component of the work of nurse managers is the recruitment and retention of nursing staff.

Job descriptions play a vital role in the success of organisational performance. The term job description has been largely replaced by position description (Dessler et al. 2004). Both provide a clear written template of roles and expected performance for both an organisation and for individual employees. At the recruitment phase, a job or position description gives the prospective employee an opportunity for self-assessment suitability. In a sense this represents the commencement of the culling phase of selection. Throughout the period of employment the job description serves as an ongoing framework for performance evaluation, as well as for position review and for position redesign. When an employee leaves the organisation, the job description can be further reviewed and refined to assist the organisation in achieving its goals.