Book excerpt: Essentials of Nursing Practice introduces the core topics and essential information that nursing students, in all four fields, will need to master during the first year of a nursing degree. It expertly brings together insight from over fifty experienced lecturers, nurses and healthcare professionals, along with contributions from student nurses, to deliver the most complete guide to successfully becoming a registered nurse. Key features: A clear, full-colour, effective learning design aimed to help students understand the core theory, skills and knowledge, and how this can be applied in practice through holistic, person-centred nursing. Covers professional issues such as ethics, law, accountability, core academic skills like writing and completing assignments, and fundamental clinical skills such as pain management and medicines administration. Includes interactive activities such as critical thinking, reflection and ‘what’s the evidence’ boxes. Real-life ‘voices’ and experiences from patients, students and practitioners are integrated throughout. Addresses the transition to the new NMC Standards of Proficiency with a new tool developed for educators mapping the content of the book to both the existing and new standards. Readers get free 24/7 access to videos, case studies, journal articles, quizzes and multiple choice questions at the click of a button, by downloading the interactive eBook version of the text. (Redemption code and instructions inside the book)