Manual of Psychosocial Nursing Interventions: Promoting Mental Health in Medical-Surgical Settings

As a nurse working in a surgical environment who is concerned about providing holistic patient care I truly appreciated the scope of this text. This text serves two major functions in my opinion. First, it provides nurses without advanced psychiatric/mental health training many useful interventions for mentally ill patients in med/surg settings. These interventions also provide the practicing nurse with a review of the major problems associated with the disease and alert the nurse to relevant concerns patients may have. Secondly, this text provides a framework for medical/surgical nurses to incorporate mental status into daily nursing assessments which usually give scant attention to emotional health. As hospital stays continue to shorten (although with less rapidity than forecasters predicted) and previously hospital-based procedures are converted to outpatient visits, the push is on for shorter overall in-patient stays. A large body of scientific evidence supports the role of emotional health in promoting physical health and overall recovery from invasive procedures. It has become necessary for med/surg nurses to examine the emotional status of patients and intervene to promote faster recovery and successful outcomes. This book is a valuable tool to assist the professional nurse in this endeavor. Unfortunately, the book fails to address many psychosocial implications of medical disorders and surgical procedures. An expansion of this subject might include discussions about the psychosocial effects of specific procedures (angiograms, CABG procedures, hip and other joint replacements). Overall this is a useful reference manual that I recommend for med/surg nurses at all levels.