Health care is changing like never before. Every day
there are new technologies, new treatments, and new
pressures. Changes in response to social, political, and
economic factors are challenging and changing everything—
including nursing. This text addresses these
changes by recognizing that students, now and in the
future, will have less clinical experience in acute care
settings and more exposure to alternate settings, such as
skilled nursing units, home health, and outpatient clinics,
for clinical learning experiences.
A holistic concept of people, health, wellness, and
healing is used to avoid the fragmentation that may
occur in some health care settings. A holistic perspective
focuses on all dimensions of an individual, including
physiological, psychological, social, cultural, cognitive,
and spiritual. An individual cannot be divided into separate
entities and still be viewed as a unique being. In
keeping with the holistic perspective, many concepts
(such as sexuality, spirituality) have been integrated
throughout the text.
Special attention has been given to provide a clear,
concise presentation of content that is realistic for the
beginning nursing student. This text is timely in its
approach to content, recognizing the inherent changes
affecting the health care delivery system and the nursing
curriculum. The authors recognize the student as an
active participant who assumes a collaborative role in
the learning process. Content is presented to challenge
the student to develop critical thinking skills.