Preface

This book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of current nursing practice and clinical interventions. The authors are a group of international experts with a focus on the clinical aspects upon which the practice components of nursing care are based. We hope that many of the technological and therapeutic advances described will allow nurses and other healthcare professionals to use best practices to improve healthcare outcomes in different categories of patients. *Nursing - New Insights* for Clinical Care, however, does not aim to provide a compendium of recent advances in nursing care but rather to focus on current experiences in health care delivery. Today, understanding and meeting patient concerns is as important as performing therapeutic interventions, and information regarding the best approaches in healthcare delivery has increased significantly. Paradoxically, proposed therapeutic interventions are sometimes complicated by contradictory data, due to different methodological approaches to their collection. Evidence-based practice and guidelines to improve the efficiency of clinical interventions are therefore as important for the profession as for the public.

I wish to express my sincere thanks to all who have contributed to this book by describing the role of nurses in the treatment of different acute and/or chronic diseases, their etiology, pathogenesis, clinical outcomes, and symptomatic presentation. Each chapter focuses on specific nursing interventions due to advances in international healthcare. Motohiro Sano and Tomoko Majima from Japan describe a home-based heart failure nursing intervention supporting selfmanagement and independent living. Dilar Costa, Joana Matias and Filipa Aguiar from Portugal show the importance of the dialogue between renal transplant patients' educational needs and the knowledge transmitted by nurses. Shendy Majed from the UK discusses the role of nursing in urogynecology. Adelaide Maria Ansah Ofei, Yennuten Paarima and Theresa Barnes from Ghana explore strategic leadership in nursing. Amr Salem from the UK describes the management of obstetric and intrapartum emergencies. Parisa Bozorgzad from Iran studies the cultural safety of hospitalized patients. Sachi Sri Kantha from Japan presents recent findings on somnambulism. Mbatha Princess Busisive Siphive from South Africa demonstrates the use of the Lautenbach irrigation system in clinical practice. Nazri Nordin from Malaysia describes an advanced nursing approach to palliative care.

Today's nurses collaborate with interdisciplinary teams throughout care settings and have a significant effect on specific groups of patients, particularly in the prevention of adverse events or comorbidity of symptoms. While it is very difficult to provide an overview of all aspects of nursing, we hope that this book will be a valuable resource not only for nurses but for other clinicians, students and patients seeking insights into new therapies and clinical practices.
