Study Guide for Fundamental Concepts and Skills for Nursing, 5th Edition reinforces your mastery of the terms and concepts presented in the text. Creative activities and updated exercises assist you in setting priorities, applying the nursing process, practicing critical thinking, exercising good judgment and clinical reasoning, and increasing effective communication. A unique Steps to Better Communication section offers vocabulary building and communication exercises for ESL-LED students, and Cultural Points help you understand a diverse patient population.

Contents
Unit I: Introduction to Nursing and the Health Care System
1. Nursing and the Health Care System
2. Concepts of Health, Illness, Stress, and Health Promotion
3. Legal and Ethical Aspects of Nursing

Unit II: The Nursing Process
4. The Nursing Process and Critical Thinking
5. Assessment, Nursing Diagnosis, and Planning
6. Implementation and Evaluation

Unit III: Communication in Nursing
7. Documentation of Nursing Care
8. Communication and the Nurse-Patient Relationship
9. Patient Education and Health Promotion
10. Delegation, Leadership, and Management

Unit IV: Developmental, Psychosocial, and Cultural Considerations
11. Growth and Development: Infancy Through Adolescence
12. Adulthood and the Family
13. Promoting Healthy Adaptation to Aging
14. Cultural and Spiritual Aspects of Patient Care
15. Loss, Grief, and End-of-Life Care

Unit V: Basic Nursing Skills
16. Infection Prevention and Control: Protective Mechanisms and Asepsis
17. Infection Prevention and Control in the Hospital and Home
18. Safe Lifting, Moving, and Positioning of Patients
19. Assisting with Hygiene, Personal Care, Skin Care, and the Prevention of Pressure Ulcers
20. Patient Environment and Safety
21. Measuring Vital Signs
22. Assessing Health Status
23. Admitting, Transferring, and Discharging Patients
24. Diagnostic Tests and Specimen Collection

Unit VI: Meeting Basic Physiologic Needs
25. Fluid, Electrolyte, and Acid-Base Balance
26. Concepts of Basic Nutrition and Cultural Considerations
27. Nutritional Therapy and Assisted Feeding
28. Assisting with Respiration and Oxygen Delivery
29. Promoting Urinary Elimination
30. Promoting Bowel Elimination
31. Pain, Comfort, and Sleep
32. Complementary and Alternative Therapies

Unit VII: Medication Administration
33. Pharmacology and Preparation for Drug Administration
34. Administering Oral, Topical, and Inhalant Medications
35. Administering Intradermal, Subcutaneous, and Intramuscular Injections
36. Administering Intravenous Solutions and Medications

Unit VIII: Care of the Surgical and Immobile Patient
37. Care of the Surgical Patient
38. Providing Wound Care and Treating Pressure Ulcers
39. Promoting Musculoskeletal Function

Unit IX: Caring for the Elderly
40. Common Physical Care Problems of the Older Adult
41. Common Psychosocial Care Problems of Older Adults

Key Features
Review questions for the NCLEX-PN® Examination provide you with additional NCLEX practice to prepare you for the exam.
Critical thinking activities give you practice at higher-level application questions.
Communication exercises ask you to practice communicating complex and difficult ideas in nursing with partners.
Cultural Points explore how the health care field varies in different countries, and how culture affects healthcare in our own country, to give you a broader perspective of nursing care outside your comfort zone.
Setting Priorities questions ask you to rank tasks in order of importance.
Clinical situations applied to sample practice situations stimulate critical thinking and practical application of nursing concepts.
Pronunciation and Intonation Skills assist you with the more difficult terms and words with multiple meanings in the nursing field.
Grammar Points exercises offer a refresher on common grammatical errors made in the nursing field.
Word Attack Skills provide focused concentration on some of the more important or confusing terms in the curriculum.
Meeting Clinical Objectives activities help you meet stated clinical practice objectives of the corresponding chapter.
Review of structure and function of the human body refreshes you on content learned in previous classes and how it applies to this curriculum.
Completion exercises with key terms reinforce nursing vocabulary.
Short answer, identification, multiple choice, and matching questions use multiple formats to test your knowledge of concepts conveyed in the text.
Application of the Nursing Process questions reinforce the different stages of the nursing process.