PeriAnesthesia Nursing Core Curriculum

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This book combines two books, the Core Curriculum for Perianesthesia Nursing and the Ambulatory Surgery Core Curriculum. This combined text is an excellent resource for all nurses practicing in perianesthesia areas of hospitals or ambulatory surgery settings. It is a comprehensive resource that leaders and educators can use to provide competency-based orientation, maintain competencies, and develop staff member competencies in perianesthesia nursing practice. The book uses an easy-to-read outline format, which clearly presents the most current information.

The text is divided into seven sections:

The life span section in particular caught my interest because it is very useful, has a lot of good information, is easy to use, and can be a quick reference for any nurse. The chapters in this section provide guidance and information about patients throughout the life span, from pediatric to geriatric. The many tables in this section focus on growth and development, physiologic responses, pain assessment, and medica-tions currently used in the perianesthesia setting. These tables provide an excellent reference for the perianesthesia nurse. There also is an emphasis on thermoregulation with many figures that portray concepts such as temperature monitoring, mechanisms of heat loss, patient assessment, and management of hypothermia, as well as figures that depict management of malignant hyperthermia syndrome.

This second edition includes two new chapters that reflect evidence-based practice: “Postoperative nausea and vomiting” and “Bariatric care.” The chapter on postoperative nausea and vomiting is thorough in describing risk assessment and scoring systems as well as prophylactic and rescue antiemetics. The chapter on bariatric surgery provides much information on anatomy and physiology, incidence, surgical options, potential complications, physiologic rationales for surgery, and implications for the perianesthesia care of the bariatric patient. This chapter also includes many figures and text boxes that detail anatomy or surgical procedures that can be used for a quick reference for the perianesthesia nurse.

All the chapter authors are experts in their fields of practice, and many are certified in their specialties. The authors of the book have expertise and experience as caregivers and researchers. They present information in a well-organized manner, and the tables and diagrams are clear and concise.

This book also gives the perianesthesia nurse the opportunity for self-assessment to identify strengths and weaknesses, an important step in achieving and mastering competency. An entire appendix is devoted to the certification process and requirements, which will assist those nurses who wish to achieve certification in perianesthesia nursing.

I would also highly recommend this book for both new and “seasoned” nurses in any area of practice because of the current and updated information, easy-to-read tables, and explicit anatomical diagrams. Each chapter could be used as a stand-alone reference as well. Nurse educators and leaders will find this book to be a great resource in developing competency-based orientation programs and in developing and maintaining competencies for the perianesthesia nurse.