Ebersole and Hess’ Gerontological Nursing and Healthy Aging (review)

Adapted from Ebersole and Hess’ Gerontological Nursing and Healthy Aging(3rd ed.), the first Canadian edition could not be more timely as we begin to experience the “gerontological explosion” with the first wave of baby boomers reaching age 65. Older adults are the “core business of health care” (John A. Hartford Foundation, n.d.). Nurses, as well as other health care providers, will increasingly be caring for and providing services to older adults from diverse cultural backgrounds in a variety of Canadian health care settings. Theris Touchy, Kathleen Jett, and the Canadian authors Veronique Boscart and Lynn McCleary correctly approach caring for older adults from a health perspective, rather than a disease perspective, with an emphasis on strengths, resilience, resources, and capabilities that promote wellness and functional ability.

This comprehensive book is written for Canadian nursing students, nurses, and educators. Older adults and their care partners would also find most of the chapters relevant and useful to them in promoting or maintaining their own health. The book is organized around four major topics: (a) foundations of healthy aging, (b) changes of aging, (c) coping with chronic illness, and (d) caring for older adults and their care-givers. Section I examines the foundations of healthy aging and gerontological nursing, communicating with older adults, and the influence of culture and ethnicity on nursing practice. Historical and current trends are also reviewed. Section II presents changes in normal aging (i.e., biological, social, psychological, spiritual, cognition, nutrition, hydration, continence, sleep, activity, skin, and safety), and the nurses’ role, in partnership with older adults, to maintain or restore wellness. Section III describes a variety of chronic illnesses experienced by older adults (e.g., diabetes, musculoskeletal, visual, auditory, cardiovascular, respiratory, and cognitive conditions), and the implications for nursing practice. Section IV focuses on economic and legal issues, relationships, roles, transitions, and care across the continuum that affect older adults and their caregivers. Mental health issues and loss, dying, and death in later life are also discussed in section IV. Additional components found in each chapter of the book, which promote optimal learning, include objectives, glossaries, key concepts, activities, discussion questions, and lists of additional resources. Further ancillaries for instructors and students can be found at http://evolve.elsevier.com.

Each chapter provides an excerpt from qualitative research that describes the lived experience, description of the issue or disorder, assessment tools, detailed intervention strategies, and boxes, tables, and figures that clearly summarize and describe the information. The content is most applicable to practicing nurses and other health care providers, in whatever setting they work, and is consistent with the Canadian Gerontological Nursing Association’s (2010) Standards of Practiceand the National Initiative for Care of the Elderly’s (2010) Core Interprofessional Competencies for Gerontology.

Research studies such as that by Wong et al. (2005) cited in chapter 17 and the study by Resnick et al. (2005) in chapter 18 are excellent examples of how nursing research can inform evidence-based nursing practice. The book would be strengthened, however, by greater recognition of the research conducted by Canadian nurses who describe and explore these chronic conditions with older adults and their care partners and who examine interventions that impact health care providers’ and older adults’ ability to manage their chronic conditions. In addition, the book’s applicability to practicing nurses would be enhanced with a chapter highlighting that nurses are expected to use best available evidence, stating where this evidence can be found (e.g, Cochrane Library [www.thecochranelibrary.com], Joanna Briggs website [www.joannabriggs.edu.au], NurseOne [www.nurseone.ca]), and explaining how to assess the quality of evidence.

Currently in Canada, nurse educators struggle with attempting to ensure that gerontological nursing content is adequately taught in undergraduate nursing programs, as this content is often integrated within other content areas. This book will make an important contribution to gerontological curriculum development and implementation. I would welcome the opportunity to teach a gerontological nursing course that is based on...