Palliative Care Nursing: Caring for Suffering Patients, 2nd Edition Doody's Expert Review Review Questionnaire ISBN: 9781284209822 ISBN-10: 1284209822 Copyright: 2023 Edition: 2nd Author: Perrin, Kathleen Ouimet, Sheehan, Caryn A., Potter, Mertie L., Kazanowski, Mary K., Doody's Expert Review    Score: 95 Doody's Star Rating™ and Doody's Expert Review provide by Doody Enterprises, Inc. Reviewer: Leah Ward,  DNP, AGNP-C, ACHPN  (Connecticut Organization to Advance Palliative Care) Description This palliative care nursing book focuses on suffering and the historical contexts, current research, and case studies that explain how situations are assessed and treated in a holistic manner. Purpose The book's purpose is simply to describe sources of suffering and how they affect patients, families, students, and nurses, as well as ways the nursing profession can mitigate suffering holistically and through thorough assessment of the situation. The preface explains the authors' journeys in the discovery of the contexts of suffering. The authors meet these worthy objectives. Audience The book is valuable for anyone seeking to learn about holistic nursing views related to suffering, and how that suffering can later affect end-of-life care. This can be pertinent to nurses of all specialties and educational levels, students, scholars from related fields, researchers, authors, and professors. Economists who study the impacts of palliative nursing care on health care delivery and cost savings would also benefit. The authors are all nursing professors who study the contexts of human suffering and how the nursing profession perceives and mitigates suffering and are credible. Features The book contains 22 case studies, a figure on the psychological basis of suffering, a table on the summary of effects of child abuse and types of bullying that affect pediatric suffering, photos of student projects that depict and explain suffering, and a table about COMFORT and NURSE acronyms to explain communication and empathy techniques. A sample of chronic pain inventory tool is given, a table of chronic disease trajectories, types of suffering, risks and benefits of parenteral hydration at end of life, the palliative performance scale for determining hospice eligibility, prevalence of symptoms at end-of-life, a brief equianalgesic dosing chart, end-of-life treatments for dyspnea, secretions, nausea/vomiting, and delirium are presented in easy-to-follow tables. The book explains the contrast between depression and normal grief, views of death across developmental stages, five spiritual needs, religious affiliations, and summary of religious beliefs around the world. The end of each chapter includes a summary of key points, reflection exercises, and questions for journaling and reflection. Considerable case studies that illustrate sources of suffering and the ways that those sources were treated are used as examples. Chapters include communication techniques, symptom management, religion and spirituality, advance care planning, grieving, the role of hope in alleviating suffering, bearing witness and being present in the situation and are all centered around the theme of suffering. The thorough index and table of contents aid in efficient location of information. This is not a medical textbook, so it does not include detailed pathophysiology, disease trajectory information, and pharmacological information. Information presented is more general for holistic nursing care and may not meet the needs of researchers with a more scientific focus. Assessment This is a quality publication with a focus on holistic nursing practice in the field of palliative care and is most useful for nurses of various educational levels and specialties who would like a greater understanding of the contexts of human suffering and how to mitigate those effects. This updated version is useful as palliative care nursing research is ever evolving. Review Questionnaire Range Question Score 1-10 Are the author's objectives met? 10 1-10 Rate the worthiness of those objectives. 10 1-5 Is this written at an appropriate level? 5 1-5 Is there significant duplication? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) 5 1-5 Are there significant omissions? (1=significant, 5=insignificant) 5 1-5 Rate the authority of the authors. 5 1-5 Are there sufficient illustrations? 5 1-5 Rate the pedagogic value of the illustrations. 4 1-5 Rate the print quality of the illustrations. 5 1-5 Are there sufficient references? 1 1-5 Rate the currency of the references. 5 1-5 Rate the pertinence of the references. 5 1-5 Rate the helpfulness of the index. 5 1-5 If important in this specialty, rate the physical appearance of the book N/A 1-10 Is this a worthwhile contribution to the field? 10 1-10 If this is a 2nd or later edition, is this new edition needed? 10 ©2025 Doody Enterprises, Inc.