Book excerpt: Building on the strengths of the fourth edition, Basic Nursing: Essentials for Practice is back in a new edition! Thoroughly updated and revised to provide a more focused and engaging presentation, this new edition offers the basic principles, concepts, and skills needed by nursing students. The five-step nursing process returns to provide a consistent, logical organizational framework, with a clear writing style and numerous learning aids. An increased emphasis on caring, along with new boxes on Focused Client Assessment and Outcome Evaluation, reflect current practice trends. This new edition is better than ever! Five-Step Nursing Process provides a consistent organizational framework. More than 40 nursing skills are presented in a clear, 2-column format with rationales for all steps. Procedural Guidelines boxes provide streamlined step-by-step instructions for performing basic skills. Growth and Development chapter and age-related considerations throughout clinical chapters help prepare students to care for clients of all ages. Sample Nursing Care Plans highlight defining characteristics in assessment data, include client goals and expected outcomes in the planning section, and provide rationales for each nursing intervention. Progressive Case Studies follow the interactions of a client and nurse throughout the chapter to illustrate steps in the nursing process and develop critical thinking skills. Brief coverage of higher level concepts including research, theory, professional roles, and management, maintains the text's focus on essential, basic content. The narrative style makes the text more engaging and appealing. Focused Client Assessment boxes provide specific guidelines for factors to assess, questions and approaches, and physical assessment. Content on delegation is discussed throughout the narrative and specific guidelines are included for each skill. Skills now include Unexpected Outcomes and Interventions to alert for potential undesirable responses and provide appropriate nursing actions. Caring in Nursing is presented in a new chapter and as a thread throughout the text. Outcome Evaluation are based on the chapter's case study and provide guidelines on how to ask questions and evaluate care based on the answers received. NIC and NOC are discussed in the Nursing Process chapter to provide an overview of these taxonomies encountered in practice. NCLEX-style multiple-choice questions at the end of each chapter help students evaluate learning.