JULY 2006, VOL 84, NO 1 • AORN JOURNAL • 121

R E V I E W S

Smart Nursing: How toCreate a Positive

Work Environmentthat Empowers and

Retains NursesJune Fabre

2005, 250 pages$32.95 softcover

This is an easy to read and under-stand book that emphasizes ensuringpatient safety, reducing nurse turnover,and reaching health care solutions.Nurses, managers, administrators, andchief executive officers all can findvaluable information in this book.

The author discusses the 1990shealth care management staffing crisisthat was caused by the exodus ofskilled and experienced nurses lost toburn out or jobs with more satisfaction.This crisis added significantly to thedifficulties health care organizationsexperienced in trying to staff their facil-ities adequately while being mindful ofcost effectiveness.

According to the author,

Smart nursing is a system of strate-gies that enable nurses to use theirfull professional capacity to deliversafe patient care in a variety of clin-ical settings; at the same time, itempowers managers to work withstaff more effectively.

The book presents the author’s modelfor creating a positive environment fornurses, patients, and administrators. Shefocuses on six building blocks for nurserecruitment and retention, includingrespect, simplicity, flexibility, integrity,

professional culture, and communica-tion. The author makes numerous sug-gestions about what individual nursescan do to create a positive workplaceand includes inspiring success storiesillustrating each suggestion.

The author also describes how the“smart nursing” system will benefitadministrators and managed careproviders. When implemented, the sys-tem empowers nurses to create positive,safe environments that enhance the sixcritical building blocks and lead to sub-stantially improved nurse retention.

The end of each chapter includestips for clinical nurses, managers, andeducators. The book also includes askills assessment sheet, a reading list,references, and an index.

As a perioperative nurse and man-ager for many years, thepart of the book that I foundmost interesting was theanalysis of the true cost ofstaff turnover and the finan-cial advantage that can some-times be gained by adding astaff person. The author pointsout the costs of advertising foropen positions; interview time;sign-on bonuses; and orienta-tion, training, and associatedexpenses, as well as the costs of premi-um pay to cover staffing holes and theadministrative time it takes to manageshort staffing caused by staff turnover.The financial advantages also can beseen in decreased litigation and sicktime. She presents many compellingpoints that readers will want to bring totheir own workplaces.

Experienced nurses will find theauthor’s insights very familiar. Readerswill get the feeling that they are in adiscussion group with informed nurs-es. This book is an excellent read fornurses, administrators, and anyone

Creating a positive workenvironment; the Perioperative Nursing Data Set;

performance reviews; nursing fundamentals

BOOKS

© AORN, Inc, 2006

122 • AORN JOURNAL

JULY 2006, VOL 84, NO 1 Reviews

else in the organization whohas influence on the nursingenvironment.

This book is available fromSpringer Publishing Co, 11 W42 St, New York, NY 10036.

SUSAN JENSENRN, BS, CNOR

OR NURSE

GLEN FALLS HOSPITAL

GLEN FALLS, NY

PNDS @ Work:Policies,

Procedures, andPathways

Susan V. M. Kleinbeck2005, 64 pages

$15 member/$20 nonmembersoftcover

Standardized policies andprocedures make it possiblefor everyone to speak thesame language and focus onproviding quality care. Patientsafety is of fore-most importancein every caregiv-er’s mind, andperioperative nurs-ing policies andprocedures are vitalto ensuring that opti-mal patient care isprovided. Althoughfew people have aburning desire to writepolicies and proce-dures, it is policies and proce-dures that facilitate standard-ized quality care and reduceliability. In a sense, policiesand procedures are a form ofinsurance.

The Perioperative Nursing

Data Set (PNDS) is a stan-dardized nursing vocabularythat promotes good commu-nication among perioperativestaff members. This book is atechnical, how-to manualthat provides step-by-stepguidelines that facilities canuse to create or update poli-cies and procedures usingthe PNDS as a guiding tool.The book contains modelsand templates that can beadapted to allow for a cut-and-paste process of creatingpolicies and procedures thatare facility-specific.

Examples of how to incor-porate the PNDS vocabularyinto facility policies for theperioperative setting are veryhelpful. Of particular note arethe many illustrations in thebook regarding how to imple-ment clinical pathways usingthe PNDS as a model.Variances, such as potentialcomplications and unexpected

occurrences thatpatients may experi-ence during theperioperativecourse, also areexplored and illus-trated. Even withmy limitedinvolvement incommittees thatwork on policies,procedures, and

clinical path-ways, I found this book easyto follow.

It is important to note thatthis book is geared toward thehospital setting. Although a small section in the bookaddresses the use of clinicalpathways in an outpatient

setting, nurses working inambulatory surgery centersmay need to adapt the many examples to their settings.

I believe that there are notenough practical, how-toresources available to thosewho value the provision ofquality care and are con-cerned with reducing liabili-ty. This book helps fill thatvoid.

This book is available fromAORN, 2170 S Parker Rd,Suite 300, Denver, CO 80231.

MARIA G. HEACOCKRN, CNORSTAFF NURSE

HEALTH SOUTH SURGERY CENTER

SACRAMENTO, CALIF

2600 Phrases for EffectivePerformance

ReviewsPaul Falcone

2005, 244 pages$10.95 softcover

The annual performancereview process can be anagonizing and stressful peri-od for anyone in a supervi-sory position. The author ofthis book offers a shoulderto lean on and severalencouraging words to makethis annual task easier andmore meaningful. His yearsof experience in the field ofhuman resources are evidentas the book guides supervi-sors through the reviewprocess.

The heart of the book lies