What Nurses Know and Doctors Don't Have Time to Tell You [Paperback]

Pat Carroll (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004

This comprehensive, accessible home reference guide addresses a wide range of health concerns-as only a nurse who knows the inside story on healthcare can. From headaches to ankle sprains, asthma to zinc remedies, this authoritative resource reveals what everyone needs to know in order to get healthy-and stay that way. The book features hundreds of tips on easing symptoms, promoting healing, following a treatment plan, and solving both the big and small problems that arise when someone is sick, hurt, or in pain.

Readers will discover how to:

€ Treat everyday health complaints and minor injuries
€ Heal faster after an injury
€ Get the best results from medicines while reducing side effects
€ Recover more comfortably at home after outpatient surgery

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this useful home healthcare guide, Carroll offers the insight of a nurse to help readers understand and treat common medical conditions such as skin rashes and joint pains. Rather than following the general practice of organizing a self-care guide around specific diagnoses-which, she argues, makes such guides "hard to use unless you can diagnose yourself correctly first"-she lists the topics by symptoms, starting with the most common medical complaint: headaches. She then works through topics like eye irritation, toothaches, constipation and dizziness. In each section, she explains what the symptoms look and feel like, answers FAQs and decisively informs readers when the symptoms might be serious enough to warrant a call to a healthcare pro or a trip to the emergency room. The book also includes information on dealing with injuries like sprains and cuts, choosing and using medications, fighting through the difficulties of the healthcare system and having surgery. Through it all, the tone is accessible, friendly and easy-to-understand-just as a one might hope a good nurse would be.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Pat Carroll began her career as a respiratory therapist, a graduate of Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY. She returned to school to become a registered nurse, and is a proud alumna of Excelsior College School of Nursing based in Albany, NY, the largest nursing school in the United States. She has additional degrees in education and nursing.

Most recently, Pat has maintained a clinical practice as the volunteer health coordinator for the homeless shelter in her community, and is now working with her former Congressman to bring a community health center to the largest city in Connecticut without one. She has extensive experience in ER nursing, critical care, home care and traditional in-patient hospital care of adults and children. She's board certified in general nursing, emergency nursing and nursing professional development.

Known for her entertaining style, Pat is a sought-after speaker for professional and community education programs and has been making regular television appearances around the US since 2001. She's also been on CNN Headline News and Fox News Channel. Her goal is to present health segments from a nurse's perspective and to help establish nurses as credible health experts in the media. She won a Golden Lamp Award from the Center for Nursing Advocacy in 2003 for providing one of the best media portrayals of nursing. Pat's special for PBS, Hints for Health: A Nurse's Notebook® debuts in Connecticut in June 2004, and nationwide in August.

Pat published her first article in a professional journal twenty-five years ago. Little did she know that would lead her to a career publishing nearly 200 professional articles along with two award-winning textbooks. What Nurses Know and Doctors Don't Have Time to Tell You is the culmination of a dream -- Pat sees it as the ultimate patient education opportunit

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade; 1 edition (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399529578
• ISBN-13: 978-0399529573
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #303,154 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive!, June 1, 2004

By 

msedrn "msedrn" (TX. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: What Nurses Know and Doctors Don't Have Time to Tell You (Paperback)

Ms. Carroll has done an incredible job of explaining medical conditions so they can be easily understood by the lay person. More than this, she describes common sense treatments that can be implemented at home, versus when the condition warrants a call to the health care provider. Signs and symptoms necessitating an immediate trip to the ER are also listed. The book begins with a terrific explanation of the differences between nursing practice and the practice of medicine that dispels the myth that nurses are the handmaidens of the physician. She uses the principles of sound nursing judgment in the advice she gives throughout the book. Many resources (including her own website) are listed for further information. Written in a warm, down to earth style, this is an invaluable book for lay persons, and a reference that nurses can recommend to others with confidence.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Patients Should Know But Don't, June 2, 2004

By 

Anthony L. Dewitt "Missouri Veteran" (Jefferson City, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Nurses Know and Doctors Don't Have Time to Tell You (Paperback)

As an attorney who deals with medical issues every day, I found Pat Carroll's book to be and excellent blend of science and common sense advice to patients and their families. Whether the subject is safety when traveling, immunizations, or how to get the most out of your relationship with your physician, the book dispenses excellent advice.
New mothers will find the book very helpful, and so will those who may lack formal education in health subjects. Like her advice not to clean out cuts with peroxide, the advice she dispenses often goes against "the way we've always done it," but it never goes against established medical and nursing science. Readers will learn many things they should know, but most likely do not.
This is a book that everyday consumers and patient educators will find priceless.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Nurses Know, July 21, 2004

By 

T. Evans (Norwalk, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: What Nurses Know and Doctors Don't Have Time to Tell You (Paperback)

Outstanding - and I am a nurse. The advice is for any one who has a parent or is a parent and helps make sense out of the world of medicine. Physicians are overloaded and Ms. Carroll helps docs help patients. I wish physicians would give copies to their patients!