Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents: The nature of nursing: Historical and contemporary nursing practice -- Evidence-based practice and research in nursing -- Nursing theories and conceptual frameworks -- Legal aspects of nursing -- Values, ethics, and advocacy -- Contemporary health care: Health care delivery systems -- Community nursing and care continuity -- Home care -- Electronic health records and information technology -- The nursing process: Critical thinking and clinical reasoning -- Assessing -- Diagnosing -- Planning -- Implementing and evaluating -- Documenting and reporting -- Health beliefs and practices: Health promotion -- Health, wellness, and illness -- Culturally responsive nursing care -- Complementary and alternative healing modalities -- Life span development: Concepts of growth and development -- Promoting health from conception through adolescence -- Promoting health in young and middle-aged adults -- Promoting health in older adults -- Promoting family health -- Integral aspects of nursing: Caring -- Communicating -- Teaching -- Leading, managing, and delegating -- Assessing health: Vital signs -- Health assessment -- Integral components of client care: Asepsis -- Safety -- Hygiene -- Diagnostic testing -- Medications -- Skin integrity and wound care -- Perioperative nursing -- Promoting psychosocial health: Sensory perception -- Self-concept -- Sexuality -- Spirituality -- Stress and coping -- Loss, grieving, and death -- Promoting physiological health: Activity and exercise -- Sleep -- Pain management -- Nutrition -- Urinary elimination -- Fecal elimination -- Oxygenation -- Circulation -- Fluid, electrolyte, and acid-base balance --