Child care: Alan Glasper Wolfe 1991 256pp illus ISBN: 1 870 065 23 9 £12.95
1
BOOK REVIEWS WORK Child Care Alan Glasper Wolfe 1991 256pp illus ISBN: I 870 065 23 9 212.95 ‘Child Care: some nursing perspectives’, presents an anthology of papers concerned with a range of topics related to paediatric nursing. As is often seen with an anthology, there is marked variation in the style, pace and level of scholarship of these articles. This serves to enhance the collection’s readability and freshness. The book is divided into logical sections focusing on stages of childhood from the neonatal period to adolescence. This makes the location of themes and information easy. Some of these papers are accom- panied by summaries of information formulated for distribution to patients and their families as a supplement to teaching. This is an interesting feature which should find widespread use perhaps as a springboard for adaptations for local and individual needs. Most of the articles are adequately referenced facilitating further study. It is encouraging to note that several of the articles have been written by nurse learners. The graphics and layout of the text are clear and make for easy reading, the line illustrations and tabular material are adequate and the cartoons often charming. This reasonably priced collection of articles is so widely ranging as to offer something of interest for every paediatridchild health nurse .- learner or qualified. JIMRICHAKDSON BA RGN RSCN PGCE Researchinto Practice: A Reader for Nurses and the Caring Professions P Abbott & R Sapsford ou 1992 163pp illus ISBN: 0 335 09742 1 f10.99 This text will provide a useful resource for those who teach research to nurses, midwives and health care professionals on diploma and degree programmes. It consists of a collection of nine small-scale research studies, undertaken during the 198Os, that illustrate the use of different research methods in a range of health care settings. The book is divided into three sections: Section A is concerned with observation research, Section B with different ways of asking questions and Section C with controlled trials. Each section begins with a short introduction, highlighting the key features of the particular approach. Although seven of the papers have been published elsewhere, all but one have been modified slightly to emphasise the research design - a useful feature when helping students to make sense of research early on in their careers. Two further chapters are based on research (undertaken by the book’s editors) that is not readily accessible. One of these - a study of health and material deprivation in Plymouth - provides a welcome illustration of how researchers do not always need to gather their own data, but rather can use existing statistics as a basis for a most interesting study. There is also a chapter (Chapter 5) describing some of the decisions that have to be taken by researchers. This shows how textbook ideals and a researcher’s theoretical preferences may have to be compromised when undertaking a study in the ‘real world’ - an aspect of research frequently overlooked in existing texts. indeed, this chapter highlights one of the particularly attractive features of this book: readers are helped to appreciate the researchers’ experiences with a directness rarely achieved elsewhere. This Reader is designed to accompany the text entitled Research Methods for Nurses and the Caring Professions (1992), also written by Sapsford & Abbott. The editors’ claim that it can also stand alone as an introduction to research is, in my opinion, overly optimistic. The degree of prior knowledge and under- standing of research issues that is assumed, would seem to render this collection of research papers of fairly limited use as an introductory text. Used in conjunction with it companion volume, however, teachers and students alike should find these two books to be a welcome addition to the growing literature on health care research. The editors express the hope that the book will ‘open up possibilities and cast some doubt on pre- viously undoubted certainties’ (p 158). The approach adopted, which encourages reflexivity as a means of open and honest reflection at all stages of the research process, should certainly enable health care prac- titioners to appreciate both the potential and the limitations of research. As stated in the Preface, ‘the perfect researcher is . . an impossible being, someone impossibly self-critical, impossibly far-seeing and impossibly intuitve’. Whilst all the researchers in this volume have set out to undertake good research, a great deal can be learned from their successes and their failures. ELIZAHEIXCLARK BA PhD
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Transcript of Child care: Alan Glasper Wolfe 1991 256pp illus ISBN: 1 870 065 23 9 £12.95
BOOK REVIEWS
WORK
Child Care Alan Glasper Wolfe 1991 256pp illus ISBN: I 870 065 23 9 212.95
‘Child Care: some nursing perspectives’, presents an anthology of papers concerned with a range of topics related to paediatric nursing. As is often seen with an anthology, there is marked variation in the style, pace and level of scholarship of these articles. This serves to enhance the collection’s readability and freshness.
The book is divided into logical sections focusing on stages of childhood from the neonatal period to adolescence. This makes the location of themes and information easy. Some of these papers are accom- panied by summaries of information formulated for distribution to patients and their families as a supplement to teaching. This is an interesting feature which should find widespread use perhaps as a springboard for adaptations for local and individual needs. Most of the articles are adequately referenced facilitating further study.
It is encouraging to note that several of the articles have been written by nurse learners. The graphics and layout of the text are clear and make for easy reading, the line illustrations and tabular material are adequate and the cartoons often charming. This reasonably priced collection of articles is so widely ranging as to offer something of interest for every paediatridchild health nurse .- learner or qualified.
JIMRICHAKDSON BA RGN RSCN PGCE
Research into Practice: A Reader for Nurses and the Caring Professions P Abbott & R Sapsford ou 1992 163pp illus ISBN: 0 335 09742 1 f10.99
This text will provide a useful resource for those who teach research to nurses, midwives and health care professionals on diploma and degree programmes. It consists of a collection of nine small-scale research studies, undertaken during the 198Os, that illustrate the use of different research methods in a range of health care settings.
The book is divided into three sections: Section A is concerned with observation research, Section B with different ways of asking questions and Section C with controlled trials. Each section begins with a short introduction, highlighting the key features of the
particular approach. Although seven of the papers have been published elsewhere, all but one have been modified slightly to emphasise the research design - a useful feature when helping students to make sense of research early on in their careers. Two further chapters are based on research (undertaken by the book’s editors) that is not readily accessible. One of these - a study of health and material deprivation in Plymouth - provides a welcome illustration of how researchers do not always need to gather their own data, but rather can use existing statistics as a basis for a most interesting study.
There is also a chapter (Chapter 5) describing some of the decisions that have to be taken by researchers. This shows how textbook ideals and a researcher’s theoretical preferences may have to be compromised when undertaking a study in the ‘real world’ - an aspect of research frequently overlooked in existing texts. indeed, this chapter highlights one of the particularly attractive features of this book: readers are helped to appreciate the researchers’ experiences with a directness rarely achieved elsewhere.
This Reader is designed to accompany the text entitled Research Methods for Nurses and the Caring Professions (1992), also written by Sapsford & Abbott. The editors’ claim that it can also stand alone as an introduction to research is, in my opinion, overly optimistic. The degree of prior knowledge and under- standing of research issues that is assumed, would seem to render this collection of research papers of fairly limited use as an introductory text. Used in conjunction with it companion volume, however, teachers and students alike should find these two books to be a welcome addition to the growing literature on health care research.
The editors express the hope that the book will ‘open up possibilities and cast some doubt on pre- viously undoubted certainties’ (p 158). The approach adopted, which encourages reflexivity as a means of open and honest reflection at all stages of the research process, should certainly enable health care prac- titioners to appreciate both the potential and the limitations of research. As stated in the Preface, ‘the perfect researcher is . . an impossible being, someone impossibly self-critical, impossibly far-seeing and impossibly intuitve’. Whilst all the researchers in this volume have set out to undertake good research, a great deal can be learned from their successes and their failures.
ELIZAHEIX CLARK BA PhD
