April 2001 27:2 JOURNAL OF EMERGENCY NURSING 191

MEDIA REVIEWS/Matthews, Robinson, Wilson, and Sobie

Rapid Sequence Intubation Slide/Script Lecture is acomplete package for the presenter that is filled with valu-able information that reviews medications, airway man-agement equipment, procedural steps, and complicationsof RSI.—Wilson A. Matthews III

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Creating a Safe Place: Family Violence Screening in HomeCare Teaching Video and Discussion Guide

St Paul (MN): Partners for Violence Prevention, 1999, $50; phone(651) 220-8529.

If you are a health care provider who is interested in obtain-ing or providing education for domestic violence screening,here is a great new product for you! Creating a Safe Place:Family Violence Screening in Home Care is an easy-to-use 18-minute video tape and discussion guide that is easily adapt-able to self-study or facilitated group discussion. It uses case-based scenarios to teach the viewer how to deal with a vari-ety of patient screening problems and situations. Helpfulsuggestions are included for getting the patient alone, “ask-ing the question,” identifying appropriate resources, anddealing with patients who are returning to an abusive rela-tionship. The program is designed for anyone who providespatient assessment or interviews, such as nurses, social work-ers, clinic staff, physicians, and ancillary personnel.

The video lends itself well to competency-based edu-cation and could easily be offered with continuing educa-tion credits. A course objectives sheet is provided. At $50,including shipping and handling, this product is a realbargain! —Kathy Robinson

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Emergency Nursing Secrets

Oman K, Koziol-McLain J, Scheetz L. Philadelphia: Hanley & Belfus,2001, 272 pp, $35 (US), $40 (outside US), ISBN 1-56053-450-8.

Having achieved that somewhat dubious status of achronologically gifted emergency nurse, I started to reviewthis book with a slightly jaded eye. After all, I figured I hadpretty much “been there and done that.” Would this bookbe of any real value, considering my knowledge base andthe resources I already have? Well, I was surprised anddelighted to learn new emergency nursing secrets.

Emergency Nursing Secrets is divided into 35 chapters.Each chapter discusses a topic relevant to emergency nurs-ing. The chapters are grouped into 4 sections. A questionand answer format is used, interspersed with pertinenttables, drawings, and occasional mnemonics.

The first section, practice topics, includes chapterscovering subjects such as triage, death and dying in theemergency department, self-care for the caregiver, keepingsafe, case management, and care management. The chap-ter on triage provides a good synopsis of EMTALA guide-lines that need to be considered when triaging.

The second section, entitled “chief complaints,” cov-ers frequently encountered problems seen in the emer-gency department, such as headaches, seizures, chest pain,and the ever-popular nonurgent problems that we allexperience.

“Trauma care” is the title of the third section. Here thetopics range from shock, mechanism of injury, trauma ofvarious body systems, and psychosocial aspects of trauma.The chapter on trauma during pregnancy was very thor-ough and even included tips regarding factors to considerwhen caring for a pregnant patient with burns and/orinhalation trauma.

The fourth section covers the care of special popula-tions. Again, care of the pregnant patient is discussed, aswell as the geriatric population and pediatrics. A uniquechapter discussed the underserved patients who are seen inour emergency departments. This section then concludeswith a chapter on the care of abused and neglectedpatients.

Each chapter is succinct and concise. The book isperfect for emergency nurses. Quick, clear, and pertinentinformation is provided to guide our practice. The onlydrawback I found with this book was that so many refer-ences listed were older than 5 years; some of the refer-ences were clearly the gold standard for practice, but oth-ers were not.

I recommend Emergency Nursing Secrets. Reading thisbook gave me new insight and made me realize that I didnot know all there is to know concerning emergency nursing.—Mel Wilson

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