NURSE EDUCATIOX TODAY 117

cations. It represents good value for money. This is important in this instance for one of its main strengths may also be its main weakness. It is really only useful while it remains ‘up to date’, and will need frequent revision in order to do this. It will probably therefore have only a short shelf life, but because of the relatively low cost this is a lesser problem.

RUTH HAWKER PhD BEd RGN RNT

acupuncture is also discussed. Concluding chapters discuss transcutaneous nerve stimulation and aspects of research. The book is well referenced throughout and closes with a useful annotated bibliography.

The writer tends to emphasise the view that acu- puncture should be practised by doctors: it is arguable that others may well develop the skill and knowledge required to become a safe and effective practitioner. Overall, this is a lucid and interesting introduction to the topic. It should be useful for any nurse interested in developing their knowledge of holistic care.

Medicines: A Guide for Everyone 5E Peter Parish Penguin Health 1987 652pp ISBN: O-14-010095-4 25.95

PHILIP BURNARD MSc RMN RGN DipN Cert Ed RNT

Health Promotion in Nursing Practice. 2nd Ed. This book claims that it will help the reader to N Pender understand how to extend the benefits and reduce the risks of medicine taking. Appleton & Lange

It is well set out and is divided into three sections. 1987 497pp .ISBN: O-8395-3674-3 g29.45

The first two parts are concerned with giving a good overview of the basic principles of how drugs are used, how they work on the body and what groups of drugs are used for specific disorders. The third and final part lists alphabetically, commonly used drugs, providing summary information on their constitutents, normal dosages and common adverse reactions.

As the title suggests, this book is written with the lay reader in mind. It is clearly presented, does not patronise and is competitively priced. It is to be strongly recommended as an aid to making medicine more intelligible to the patient/client and enabling informed and considered choices to be made. For the nurse in practice and in training it would serve as a useful reference text and aid for teaching. One would like to believe however, that nurses’ knowledge of pharmacology should be more extensive than this book can provide.

Program Planning for Health Education and Health Promotion M B Dignan & P A Carr Lea & Febiger 1987 16Opp ISBN: O-8121-1091-9

Health education is gradually emerging from being an individual competency, incorporated more or less randomly within practice, to being a core concern of the whole health care system and thus one that will take its place within the overall planning process and cycle. At the same time the wider and more comprehensive classification health promotion (within which health education is an important component) is being used and is clearly an area in which health workers will increasingly find themselves working.

CLAIRE GOODMAN BSc MSc RGN NDN Cert

Resources to assist learning, to aid refocusing, to illuminate these emerging concerns, are not always immediately visible or accessible. For the teacher and learner who are more accustomed to the disease process, incorporating this new learning can be a challenge; worthwhile but not without problems. Acupuncture: The modem scientific approach

Anthony Campbell Faber & Faber 1987 151pp ISBN: O-571-14652-X 24.95

With the increasing interest in alternative therapies, this books’ appearance is timely. Dr Campbell offers an authoritative account of the ‘science’ of acupunc- ture from both Eastern and Western points of view.

Early chapters describe the traditional and scientific forms of acupuncture; following chapters explain how to apply it, the use of needles and the types of conditions for which acupuncture may be used. Ear

Therefore it is timely, as the focus for training health care workers adapts in this direction that these two texts can be reviewed together and recommended as useful resources.

Pender explores the changing health care scene and the opportunities that are offered for practitioners to examine their contribution. She proposes definitions and models, explores client relationships, health assessment, decision making, life style modification and social and environmental changes. She draws extensively on US research and on examples of policy and practice there, and offers an extensive range of