Product Review

Pediatric nursing focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of the health and abilities for children from newborn age through young adulthood. Utilizing a patient- and family-centered care approach, pediatric nurses strive for preventing illness and injury, restoring health, and maximizing comfort in health conditions and at the end of life, through diagnosis, treatment, and management of the childs condition and advocacy in the care of children and families. ANA and a workgroup of pediatric nurse experts, from across their specialty and representing seven professional organizations, convened to update and expand the 2008 edition to accommodate ongoing and anticipated changes in their specialty and health care. With input from numerous nurses, they developed Pediatric Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, 2nd Edition. It is a comprehensive delineation of the competent level of practice and professional performance common to and expected from pediatric registered nurses in all practice levels and settings. The publications scope of practice addresses what is expected of all pediatric nurses, specifying the who, what, where, when, why, and how of their practice. That detailed discussion of the scope of practice gives the contextthe underlying assumptions, characteristics, environments and settings, education and training requirements, key issues and trends, and ethical and conceptual bases of pediatric nursingneeded to understand and use the standards. Those 16 standards, which offer a framework for evaluating practice outcomes and goals, are those by which all pediatric nurses are held accountable for their practice. The set of specific competencies accompanying each standard serves as evidence of minimal compliance with that standard. A foundational volume that is primarily for those directly involved with pediatric nursing practice, education, and research, other nurses and allied healthcare providers, researchers, and scholars will find value in this content. It is also a resource for employers, insurers, lawyers, policy makers, regulators, and stakeholders involved in pediatric care.