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Palliative Care Nursing: Quality Care to the End of Life
Marianne LaPorte Matzo, Deborah Witt Sherman, eds. New York, NY: Springer Publishing; 2001. 545 pages, $59.95. ISBN: 0826113842.

Reviewed by Christine Westphal RN, MSN, CCRN

End-of-life competencies developed by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing serve as the organizing framework for this palliative care textbook. Spiritual, cultural, emotional, social, and physical aspects of care for the patient and family are supported by theory and concepts derived from nursing, law, ethics, and the sciences. Self-assessment exercises integrated throughout the text help the reader to gain a greater self-awareness of personal knowledge, attitudes, and values related to providing end-of-life care. Content is generally well-developed and incorporates seminal works, current research, pertinent references for further study, and some quick-reference tables; however, the text lacks the experiential richness of actual case studies.

There is significant amount of content focused on the religious, spiritual, and cultural aspects of death and dying; however, there are also several inaccuracies related to beliefs and customs noted and, although the practices described in the text may be true for some individuals, they are not universally held. For example, the authors report that African Americans find autopsy acceptable but are opposed to organ donation. Although there are differences noted in the frequency of organ donation among racial groups, the variation in consent to donate is more often related to religious, spiritual, or cultural beliefs. The authors also report that following the death of a Muslim patient, non-Muslim individuals should wear gloves when touching the body, but, this practice is actually related to the ritual washing (Ghusl El Maayat). A ritual flexing and straightening of the extremities is also reported; however, the practice is one of extending the extremities (setting the body), so that the soul would not experience pain. Authors also report that the face must be turned to the right. The preference is that the person is buried to face Mecca; if this is not possible, it is a favorable practice to turn the head to the right, which symbolizes the record of account, for it is believed that the assigned angel of the right hand scribes the good deeds of the individual during the earthly existence. A model assessment tool for eliciting individual and family values, beliefs, preferences, and customs would have been a valuable addition to the text.

Each chapter concludes with an educational plan for competency development with undergraduate and graduate behavioral outcomes and teaching and learning strategies. This is a useful teaching tool for academic settings, and could potentially be used in the development of a clinical ladder program. Palliative Care Nursing is intended to reach a broad audience of undergraduate and graduate students, program faculty and practicing nurses; however, the content and design would have greater applicability to students and faculty than practicing nurses who may be seeking a palliative care handbook.

Christine Westphal is a clinical nurse specialist for Clinical Ethics and Family Matters Support Services for the Oakwood Healthcare System and a staff nurse in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Oakwood Hospital & Medical Center in Dearborn, Mich.

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