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Book Review
HIV Nursing and Symptom Management. ME Ropka, AB Williams, Editors. Jones and Bartlett
Publishers, Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1998, 806 pages.
The need for updated texts on nursing care of patients with HIV is critical for many reasons: the rapidly expanding availability of new medications and need for adherence to complex therapeutic regimens, the requirements of opportunistic infection prophylaxis, the broad constellation of symptoms caused by many opportunistic diseases from early HIV infection through long-term end-stage care, and the vulnerable populations involved. This volume edited by nurses from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and the Yale University School of Nursing gives a cogent overview of these topics, broken into four overarching units.
Unit one provides introductory information on HIV infection including disease pathogenesis and epidemiology, related opportunistic infections and malignancies, and pharmacologic therapy. The second unit, the strongest of this volume, reviews the nursing management of common clinical problems such as neurologic manifestations, nutrition-related changes, fecal incontinence, respiratory changes, psychosocial problems, and pain management. The third unit, HIV Special Treatment Considerations, addresses adherence to therapy, continuity of care, and ethical and legal issues. Unit four gives guidance for approaching HIV care in some of the diverse populations particularly affected by the HIV epidemic: women, children, substance abusers, Hispanics, and African-Americans.
This volume, which contains more than 100 well-organized explanatory tables and figures, provides a good overview of essential topics and allows easy retrieval of information on nursing care as well as basic epidemiology and pathogenesis of frequently encountered HIV-related conditions. HIV Nursing and Symptom Management provides comprehensive background information and practical clinical guidance for nurses in HIV patient care or research.
Anne C. Moorman
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
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