Critical care nursing is a complex, challenging area of nursing practice, where clinical expertise is developed over time by integrating critical care knowledge, clinical skills, and caring practices. Finding a textbook that comprehensively yet succinctly presents essential information about how best to safely and competently care for critically ill patients and their families is a challenge for those charged with the education of new critical care practitioners. Most current textbooks deal with critical care content by combining essential and advanced concepts, rather than by providing the essential concepts first and introducing more advanced concepts later. In-depth discussion of these advanced concepts, although meaningful and important for advanced practitioners, often overwhelms the novice practitioner.
