Brunner & Suddarth's Handbook of Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests

Book excerpt: The second edition of Brunner & Suddarth's Handbook of Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests is a concise, portable, full-color handbook of hundreds of test results and their implications for nursing. Designed to accompany Brunner & Suddarth's Textbook for Medical-Surgical Nursing, 13th edition, this handbook provides readers with a quick-reference tool for use throughout the nursing curriculum, in clinicals, and in practice. The two-part organization includes a review of specimen collection procedures, followed by a concise, alphabetical list of close to 300 tests and their implications. The entry on each test includes reference values or normal findings, abnormal findings with associated nursing implications, critical values, purpose and description of the test, interfering factors, and nursing considerations for patient care before, during, and after the test.