Customer Reviews

Smeltzer, Study Guide and Handbook Package

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This book has a great format...well written and easy to understand. There are some great focusing tips at the end of each chapter such as "Critical Thinking" and many up to date charts that instructors love! I give this book a 4 because of the weight...it is really hard to carry from class to class. One might want to buy this book as two...they're selling them this way now.

I am a first year second semester nursing student and I had initially bought this text in the one volume form. When I found the same text in 2 volume form, I quickly put an order in and returned the initial buy......AND I am soooo happy i did!!!! It is much better to carry.

This is a very thorough text for nursing students and nurses who want to keep up with the latest changes in this field. It is one I will keep for my career. However, its usefulness is limited because it is so heavy, I need a llama to carry it. I end up using other references because they are easier to keep on hand when I am writing papers, etc. more than 10 feet away from the book, which is usually always.

You really have to have a lot of patience with this text because after you read the text and try to go back and recall concrete information there is a lot of extraneous information that you have to sort through. You may find yourself saying "I think I need to refer to other texts" because it seems that a lot more concise, yet complete information is available elsewhere. This book sacrifices this in a sense because there is a lot of writing devoted to multiple/conflicting opinions on treatments/nursing implications (akin to nursing journal research information) which gets very tedious when you are looking for core information; however, it may be better for a practicing nurse who has a good knowledge base and is looking for current research opinion. I prefer Lemone's text, a lot of good and pertinent information with a lot of case studies that bring medical surgical nursing study to life. Unfortunately, our school changed textbooks to this so I find myself sleeping more than usual when I'm studying.

I agree with the previous review, avoid this book. You really have to have a lot of patience with this text because after you read the text and try to go back and recall relevant/important information, you will have a more difficult time than with other texts because the material is presented in a very disorganized manner. It seems that a lot more concise, yet complete information is available elsewhere. The book goes back and forth a lot, and there is also a lot of writing devoted to multiple/conflicting opinions on treatments/nursing implications (akin to nursing journal research information) which gets very tedious when you are looking for core/relevant information; however, it may be better for a practicing nurse who has a good knowledge base and is looking for current research opinion. I prefer Lemone's text, a lot of good and useful information for the student, with a lot of case studies that bring medical surgical nursing study to life. Unfortunately, our school changed textbooks to this so I find myself sleeping more than usual when I'm studying. Again, there are MUCH better books out there!

The WORST Textbook I have every read! The author can not stay on track when discribing a condition. Example: goes from Acute conditions to Chronic and back to Acute...later throws in more Acute conditions. Because of this back and forth there is a need to repeat to set up the reader again. This is a 2500+ page book that is 11.5 pounds! 1/3 of this book is repeation. Even worse, the author uses made up synonyms when repeating info. This makes it hard to tell if they are talking about a new condition or the old one. If you bought this and agree please post your thoughts so we can get the book of the market! A very, very bad textbook do not buy it!!!

In my nursing program, this book has been labeled "The Beast" because the one volume edition is so heavy. As a matter of fact, I twisted my wrist picking it up once! The fact that the entire text is available online was invaluable for the times I did not want to lug the hard copy around and instead access it on the Internet. NCLEX review questions included on the CD was also very helpful.

This book is very tedious to read. With 10 chapters to read and study per test in our first year nursing class, this is time consuming and unnecessary. An example is on page 601 in reference to Laryngitis. The sentence "Laryngitis may be a complication of URIs." is in one paragraph twice and the thought is included in the same section in another paragraph.

Neither is it easy to read. It seems that the writers are trying to impress by using a thesaurus. In talking about hospital- acquired pneumonia it states that one of the causes is Escherichia coli three times. However, one time, it is referred to as 'enteric gram-negative bacilli'. I was not impressed.

If you want to impress colleagues, write an article. If you want to teach a student, make it concise, not superfluous.

Great text easy to read and patho portion is great for clinical. Try to get the text split into 2 books. Its also cheaper this way, makes it so much easier to transport from home to library to school to study groups etc.

This textbook is an excellent resource for my nursing classes. It has information that is relevant and up to date.