Prentice Hall Reviews & Rationales: Pathophysiology

Prentice Hall's Nursing Review & Rationales Series is the complete foundation for success both within the classroom and on the NCLEX-RN. Pathophysiology: Reviews & Rationales is a complete, concentrated outline that details all of the "need-to-know" information covering health problems for every body system, as well as multi-system and genetically transmitted problems, and much more. Each chapter provides the following tools that will help lead you to success in your course and on the NCLEX-RN: Chapter Objectives, Pre- and post-chapter tests with comprehensive rationales, Vocabulary review, Practice-to-Pass exercises, Critical thinking case studies, and NCLEX alerts. Enhance your review with the free corresponding CD-ROM and Companion Website. These additional tools feature even more detailed explanations of difficult concepts and visuals, interactive practice exercises and NCLEX-RN questions, audio glossaries, and more related resources. Also included with every book i

INTRODUCTION Welcome to the new Prentice Hall Reviews and Rationales Series! This 9-book series has been specifically designed to provide a clear and concentrated review of important nursing knowledge in the following content areas: Child Health Nursing Maternal-Newborn Nursing Mental Health Nursing Medical-Surgical Nursing Pathophysiology Pharmacology Nursing Fundamentals Nutrition and Diet Therapy Fluids, Electrolytes, & Acid-Base Balance The books in this series have been designed for use either by current nursing students as a study aid for nursing course work or NCLEX-RN licensing exam preparation, or by practicing nurses seeking a comprehensive yet concise review of a nursing specialty or subject area. This series is truly unique. One of its most special features is that it has been authored by a large team of nurse educators from across the United States and Canada to ensure that each chapter is written by a nurse expert in the content area under study. Prentice Hall Health representatives from across North America submitted names of nurse educators and/or clinicians who excel in their respective fields, and these authors were then invited to write a chapter in one or more books. The consulting editor for each book, who is also an expert in that specialty area, then reviewed all chapters submitted for comprehensiveness and accuracy. The series editor designed the overall series in collaboration with a core Prentice Hall team to take full advantage of Prentice Hall's cutting edge technology, and also reviewed the chapters in each book. All books in the series are identical in their overall design for your convenience (further details follow at the end of this section). As an added value, each book comes with a comprehensive support package, including free CD-ROM, free companion website access, and a Nursing Notes card for quick clinical reference. STUDY TIPS Use of this review book should help simplify your study. To make the most of your valuable study time, also follow these simple but important suggestions: Use a weekly calendar to schedule study sessions. Outline the timeframes for all of your activities (home, school, appointments, etc.) on a weekly calendar. Find the "holes" in your calendar--the times in which you can plan to study. Add study sessions to the calendar at times when you can expect to be mentally alert and follow it! Create the optimal study environment. Eliminate external sources of distraction, such as television, telephone, etc. Eliminate internal sources of distraction, such as hunger, thirst, or dwelling on items or problems that cannot be worked on at the moment. Take a break for 10 minutes or so after each hour of concentrated study both as a reward and an incentive to keep studying. Use pre-reading strategies to increase comprehension of chapter material. Skim the headings in the chapter (because they identify chapter content). Read the definitions of key terms, which will help you learn new words to comprehend chapter information. Review all graphic aids (figures, tables, boxes) because they are often used to explain important points in the chapter. Read the chapter thoroughly but at a reasonable speed. Comprehension and retention are actually enhanced by not reading too slowly. Do take the time to reread any section that is unclear to you. Summarize what you have learned. Use questions supplied with this book, CD-ROM, and companion website to test your recall of chapter content. Review again any sections that correspond to questions you answered incorrectly or incompletely. TEST TAKING STRATEGIES Use the following strategies to increase your success on mult