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The Nursing Profession: Development, Challenges, and Opportunities Edited by Diana J. Mason, Stephen L. Isaacs, and David C. Colby (San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass, 2011) (403 pages, $75.00 paper)
Published in 2011, this text is the fifth book in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Health Policy Series. The foreword by Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president and CEO of the RWJF suggests use of this book as a companion to the 2010 "Future of Nursing" report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and RWJF collaborative. Susan Hassmiller, RWJF Special Advisor on Nursing and Director of the Initiative on the Future of Nursing, states in the preface that the IOM committee working on the report was heavily influenced by the best thinkers of those who study and practice nursing, including authors of the articles reprinted in this book. The Nursing Profession: Development, Challenges, and Opportunities provides a comprehensive collection of 24 articles significant to the nursing profession. Readers will instantly recognize contributing authors' names from nursing's historical past such as Florence Nightingale and contemporary nurse scholars Peter Buerhaus and Linda Aiken. In addition, nurse historians Joan Lynaugh and Karen Buhler-Wilkerson are among the authors whose notable works were selected for this text.
The text begins with an original article written by Diana Mason who provides a succinct review of the nursing field. She speaks to the rich history of nursing, its current issues and challenges,...