Nursing Advanced Skills (2023)

A Long Goodbye: Ed and Mary’s Journey with Lewy Body Dementia

Editors: Adele Baldwin; Stephen Anderson; Michael Inskip; Kellie Johns; David Lindsay; Bronwyn Mathiesen; and Marie Bodak

Description: This book, built around Ed’s journal, chronicles Ed’s experiences as a carer following his wife Mary’s diagnosis with Lewy body dementia. Students and experienced health professionals are rarely afforded such an insight into how their words and actions are interpreted by, and impact upon patients, families and friends. Ed’s Story provides information and education resources related to dementia care. Although specifically focusing on Lewy body dementia, the resources are transferable to caring for people with any type of dementia. The freely available resources are suitable for use by students in the health professions, educators, formal and informal carers.

Anatomy and Physiology (OpenStax)

Description: Anatomy and Physiology is a dynamic textbook for the two-semester human anatomy and physiology course for life science and allied health majors. The book is organized by body system and covers standard scope and sequence requirements. Its lucid text, strategically constructed art, career features, and links to external learning tools address the critical teaching and learning challenges in the course. The web-based version of Anatomy and Physiology also features links to surgical videos, histology, and interactive diagrams.

Building a Medical Terminology Foundation

Description: Welcome to Building a Medical Terminology Foundation. Medical terminology is a language that is used in health care settings. Medical terms are built from Greek and Latin word parts and in addition include , acronymns , eponyms and m odern-day language terms.

Learning a new language can be a daunting task. In this resource, we offer a method for breaking down medical words that takes that daunting task and makes it manageable. What is required from you is a commitment to memorizing the word parts, learning the rules, and identifying the rebels. Once you meet that commitment we will show you how to apply the rules to the word parts you have memorized. As you memorize the language components of medical terminology it is important to support that learning with the context of anatomy and physiology.  Consider where in the body the medical term is referencing and then how it works within the body. This will build a medical terminology foundation that you can continue to grow in your future health-care courses.

Comprehensive Midwifery: The role of the midwife in health care practice, education, and research

Description: The re-emergence of midwifery as a primary health care profession is one of the great stories of Canadian health care systems, but this story has been largely undocumented. This invaluable interactive e-book details the history and philosophy of midwifery, how current midwifery theory and policies are developed, and the role of education and research in advancing the field. We include a special focus on the social determinants of women’s health throughout Canada and the world, the principle of health care as a human right, and the principles and scope of midwifery practice. A must-read for Canadian student midwives and others interested in midwifery.

Clinical Procedures for Safer Patient Care – Thompson Rivers University Edition

Description: This open educational resource (OER) was developed to ensure best practice and quality care based on the latest evidence, and to address inconsistencies in how clinical health care skills are taught and practised in the clinical setting. The checklist approach, used in this textbook, aims to provide standardized processes for clinical skills and to help nursing schools and clinical practice partners keep procedural practice current. Each skill/procedure is covered in a chapter that has learning outcomes, a brief overview of the relevant theory, checklists of steps for procedures with the rationale behind each step of the process, and a summary of key takeaways. All checklists, tables and videos are listed and hyperlinked in the appendices.

Cultural Resources for Community Nursing

Description: Canada, the United States, and European nations are presently facing a migration crisis of a magnitude that has not been seen since the massive population displacements of the post–World War II era (Fleras, 2015). Due to the effects of globalization, economic policies, financial constraints, and forced migrations due to environmental or armed conflicts, nurses are providing health care to very diverse and sometimes vulnerable populations such as refugees and asylum seekers (Racine & Lu, 2015). On the other hand, globalization also brings increased ethnic and cultural diversity within health care organizations, which affects the way nurses deliver care and how they interact with nurses coming from other countries. More than ever, nurses must be culturally competent and culturally safe in their everyday practice regardless of the health settings in which they work. Similarly, nurse managers need to understand their roles in supporting cultural competency and safety at both the individual and the organizational level. Cultural competency and cultural safety are key skills for nurses to acquire and sustain. The Canadian Nurses Association, the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing, the American Nurses Association, the American Organization of Nurse Executives, and the US Office of Minority Health are among the major regulatory nursing bodies and organizations that recognize the moral and ethical duty of nurses to advocate for and provide culturally competent care.

Documentation in Nursing: 1st Canadian Edition

Description: This open access textbook is intended to guide best practices of documentation in the nursing profession. This resource is designed for students in undergraduate nursing programs, and addresses principles of documentation, legislation associated with documentation, methods and systems of documentation, and key trends in the future of documentation. Incorporated into this resource is legislation and practice standards specific to the province of Ontario, Canada.

Fundamentals of Anatomy and Physiology

Authors: Anna Chruścik, Kate Kauter, Louisa Windus, and Eliza Whiteside

Description: The University of Southern Queensland (USQ) is committed to advancing the use of open textbooks in higher education. This textbook is a tool to support first year anatomy and physiology courses taught in Australia, aiming to provide students with an increased access to free, high-quality learning materials.

The material in this textbook is largely based on OpenStax’s Anatomy & Physiology textbook, however, has been modified for Australian course curriculum.

Health Case Studies

Description: Health Case Studies is composed of eight separate health case studies that align with the open textbooks Clinical Procedures for Safer Patient Care and Anatomy and Physiology: OpenStax. Each case study includes the patient narrative or story that models the best practice (at the time of publishing) in healthcare settings. Associated with each case is a set of specific learning objectives to support learning and facilitate educational strategies and evaluation. The case studies can be used online in a learning management system, in a classroom discussion, in a printed course pack or as part of a textbook created by the instructor. This flexibility is intentional and allows the educator to choose how best to convey the concepts presented in each case to the learner. Because these case studies were primarily developed for an electronic healthcare system, they are based predominantly in an acute healthcare setting. Educators can augment each case study to include primary healthcare settings, outpatient clinics, assisted living environments, and other contexts as relevant.

Introduction to Communication in Nursing

Description: This open access textbook is intended to guide best practices in communication in the context of the nursing profession. The resource addresses communication theory, therapeutic communication and interviewing, and interprofessional communication as it relates to nursing. This resource is designed for students in undergraduate nursing programs. The project is supported and funded by the Ryerson University Faculty of Community Services Publication Grant.

Introduction to Health Assessment for the Nursing Professional

Authors: Jennifer Lapum and Michelle Hughes

Description: “Introduction to Health Assessment for the Nursing Professional” is an open educational resource (OER) created for undergraduate nursing students at the introductory level. Educators co-curated this OER in collaboration with students for students. This resource is a unique contribution to nursing education as content is theoretically informed by health promotion in the Canadian context and by an inclusive approach to health assessment that incorporates culturally-responsive techniques related to race/ethnicity, gender/sex/sexual orientation, body sizes/types, and ability/disability. It is the first health assessment resource that is informed by clinical judgment with the goal to facilitate students’ clinical decision making and ability to prioritize care by recognizing and acting on cues and signs of clinical deterioration. Interactive clinical judgment activities and formative assessments to evaluate a student’s learning are integrated throughout the resource. The integration of clinical judgment throughout this resource will support students’ capacity to enhance patient safety and equitable health outcomes as well as their success in writing national nursing exams to become licensed to work as a Nurse.

Leadership and Influencing Change in Nursing

Description: Leadership and Influencing Change in Nursing is designed for a single-semester introduction to the professional nurse’s leadership role as both a care provider and a formal leader. An assortment of authors with diverse nursing leadership roles across Saskatchewan and Canada have contributed to this textbook. These diverse voices are focused on providing student nurses with the foundational tools, techniques, and knowledge required to empower them to meet the leadership challenges found within the incessantly changing Canadian health care environment.

Nursing Care at the End of Life: What Every Clinician Should Know

Description: Nursing Care at the End of Life: What Every Clinician Should Know should be an essential component of basic educational preparation for the professional registered nurse student. Recent studies show that only one in four nurses feel confident in caring for dying patients and their families and less than 2% of overall content in nursing textbooks is related to end-of-life care, despite the tremendous growth in palliative and end-of-life care programs across the country. The purpose of this textbook is to provide an indepth look at death and dying in this country, including the vital role of the nurse in assisting patients and families along the journey towards the end of life. There is an emphasis throughout the book on the simple, yet understated value of effective interpersonal communication between the patient and clinician. The text provides a basic foundation of understanding death and dying, including a brief historical examination of some main conceptual models associated with how patients cope with impending loss. An overview of illness trajectories and models of care, such as hospice and palliative care are discussed. Lastly, the latest evidence-based approaches for pain and symptom management, ethical concerns, cultural considerations, care at the time of death, and grief/bereavement are examined. The goal of this text is to foster the necessary skills for nurses to provide compassionate care to individuals who are nearing the end of life and their families. Every chapter contains a “What You Should Know” section which highlights and reinforces foundational concepts.

Nursing Fundamentals

Description: This Nursing Fundamentals textbook is an open educational resource with CC-BY licensing developed for entry-level nursing students. Content is based on the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) statewide nursing curriculum for the Nursing Fundamentals course (543-101), the 2019 NCLEX-RN Test Plan, the 2020 NCLEX-PN Test Plan, and the Wisconsin Nurse Practice Act.

This book introduces the entry-level nursing student to the scope of nursing practice, various communication techniques, and caring for diverse patients. The nursing process is used as a framework for providing patient care based on the following nursing concepts: safety, oxygenation, comfort, spiritual well-being, grief and loss, sleep and rest, mobility, nutrition, fluid and electrolyte imbalance, and elimination. Care for patients with integumentary disorders and cognitive or sensory impairments is also discussed. Learning activities have been incorporated into each chapter to encourage students to use critical thinking while applying content to patient care situations.

The Open Resources for Nursing (Open RN) project is supported by a $2.5 million grant from the Department of Education. This book is available for free online and can also be downloaded in multiple formats for offline use. The online version is required for interaction with adaptive learning activities included in each chapter. Affordable print versions may also be purchased from XanEdu in college bookstores and on Amazon.

Nursing Pharmacology

Description: This open access Nursing Pharmacology textbook is designed for entry-level undergraduate nursing students.  It explains basic concepts of pharmacology and describes common medication classes. This book is not intended to be used as a drug reference book, but direct links are provided to DailyMed, which provides trustworthy information about marketed drugs in the United States.

This textbook is aligned with the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) statewide nursing curriculum for the Nursing Pharmacology course (543-103).  The project is supported by a $2.5 million Open Resources for Nursing (Open RN) grant from the Department of Education and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Nursing Skills

Description: This open access Nursing Skills textbook includes physical assessments routinely performed by entry-level registered nurses and basic nursing skills performed by licensed practical nurses. It is based on the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) statewide nursing curriculum for the Nursing Skills course (543-102), the 2019 NCLEX-RN Test Plan, the 2020 NCLEX-PN Test Plan, and the Wisconsin Nurse Practice Act. Learning activities are included to encourage the student to engage in critical thinking and apply the nursing process while analyzing assessment findings.

The project is supported by a $2.5 million Open Resources for Nursing (Open RN) grant from the Department of Education and is licensed under CC-BY 4.0 creative commons license. This free book is available online and can also be downloaded in multiple formats for offline use. The online version is required for interaction with the adaptive learning activities included in each chapter.

PERFECT TIMING – Recollections of coping with cancer during a pandemic

Author: Barbara Reul

Description: This book is an educational, entertaining, and highly personal memoir written during a global pandemic. It provides an insightful snapshot of the occasionally bumpy yet spiritually transformative cancer journey of a middle-aged, immigrant, and non-partnered academic living in a sunny Canadian prairie province.

Perspectives on Bias in Medicine

Description: This book will allow the medical learner to identify and acknowledge bias in the medical setting through the eyes of patients, medical professionals, and content experts who discuss their experiences with this subject. Learners will use self-assessment via the Implicit Bias Test created by Harvard University’s Project Implicit, and reflection through knowledge checks, to solidify learning. It is written in dedication to our future medical professionals and patients we care for with the hopes of cultivating compassion through self-knowledge and awareness.

The Scholarship of Writing in Nursing Education: 1st Canadian Edition

Description: This open access textbook is intended to guide best practices in the journey of scholarly writing in the context of the nursing profession. This resource is designed for students in undergraduate nursing programs and may also be useful for students in other health-related post-secondary programs, graduate students, and healthcare providers.

Therapeutic Communication for Health Care Administrators Game Simulations

Authors: Kimberlee Carter; Marie Rutherford; and Connie Stevens

Description: Welcome to Therapeutic Communication for Health Care Administrators Game Simulations (OER). These resources are intended for learners preparing for positions in front-line health care settings. Recognizing the diverse titles for these types of roles, we intend that the title Health Care Administrator is an umbrella term that includes all types of front-line Health Care Administrators. These OER are intended to be used as companion resources to, the digital text Health Care Communication for Health Care Administrators.

Vaccine Practice for Health Professionals: 1st Canadian Edition

Description: Vaccinations save lives. The success of vaccines means people have forgotten the consequences of diseases like polio, tetanus, and measles. A growing number of parents are questioning the safety of vaccines over what vaccines protect their children against. This Open Educational Resource will provide healthcare professionals and students some background on the issues of vaccine hesitancy and how to talk with vaccine hesitant clients.

It has been a privilege to contribute to a free and open online resource that is accessible to all nursing students and other health professionals. Toronto Public Health is grateful for this joint collaboration with eCampusOntario and educators across Ontario to enhance the capacity for new health professionals to rebuild and sustain public trust in vaccines.

Vital Sign Measurement Across the Lifespan – 2nd Canadian Edition

Description: The purpose of this textbook is to help learners develop best practices in vital sign measurement. Using a multi-media and interactive approach, it will provide opportunities to read about, observe, practice, and test vital sign measurement. Boxes with helpful tips are provided throughout the chapters:

• Technique Tips provide helpful information about measurement techniques, and
• Points to Consider highlight key points to consider about vital sign measurements and findings.

A Chapter Summary and Printable Flashcards highlighting techniques for each vital sign measurement are provided at the end of each chapter. These printable flashcards are all located together in the textbook’s conclusion chapter.

Learners can review the full textbook or advance to sections that they have identified as areas to work on. The textbook has a self-directed format and provides an interactive and engaging way for learners to develop competence in the measurement of vital signs while integrating knowledge about anatomy and physiology.

Learners will develop knowledge about various vital signs including temperature, pulse, respiration, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation. Measurement of vital signs is a foundational, psychomotor skill for healthcare providers and students in post-secondary health-related programs. These measurements provide information about a person’s overall state of health and more specifically about their cardiovascular and respiratory status. These measurements can also reveal changes in a client’s vital signs over time and changes in their overall state of health. Proficiency in vital sign measurement is essential to client safety, care, and management. Measurements can influence clinical decision-making related to therapeutic interventions.