Long-Term Care
Nursing Leadership and Management
Book Reviews
Handbook for Directors of Nursing in Long-term Care
E L Mitty, 1998
Delmar Publishers, Albany, NY
There
are very few books published over the years that have been specific
to nurses in management/administrative positions in long-term care nursing
facilities. Dr. Mitty's recently published book is a significant contribution
based on her extensive experience as a director of nursing in a nursing
home.
The
book provides a comprehensive and practical approach to the management
of the nursing service in a long-term care facility. The author intended
this book to serve a variety of audiences, including novice and seasoned
directors of nursing, nurse managers, nursing students and nursing faculty.
She maintains that unlike leadership roles in other health care settings,
nurses in long-term care facilities have a dual role: leader/manager
and clinician. Based on that claim, she integrates these two roles throughout
her book. For example, she provides a number of excellent clinical flow
sheets/documentation records reflecting the clinical knowledge for a
variety of issues in nursing facilities (e.g. behavioral symptoms; bladder
retraining) and also discusses policies that nurse administrators/managers
need to consider for documentation.
The
ten chapters in this book are categorized into four parts:
- Structures
and processes of nursing administration
- Leadership
effectiveness and staff development
- Information,
budgeting and clinical management systems
- Professionalism:
Planning for excellence
While
not all topics are covered in-depth, all the topics are relevant to
leadership and management in a long-term care environment-something
that is lacking in nursing leadership and management textbooks. Several
topics are not as contemporary as they could be. For example, the author
focuses on quality assurance, but does not provide adequate information
about quality improvement.
Information
provided in the book is supported by research and theory, but also interspersed
with both innovative and practical strategies to be an effective nurse
leader in a nursing facility. Almost every other page includes a useful
tip associated with the topic under discussion.
This
book should be on every nurse administrator/manager's book shelf!
Go
to amazon.com
to purchase:
Handbook for Directors of Nursing in Long-term Care
Reviewed
by Christine Mueller PhD,
RN, Associate Professor, School of Nursing, Center for Gerontological Nursing, University of Minnesota, July 2001.
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