The Royal Marsden NHS Trust

Manual of

Clinical Nursing Procedures

Fourth Edition - CD Rom

A personal review by Rod Ward 5.1.2000


This CD is a demonstration version which does not enable access to the full content.

The CD is designed to be run over a network enabling rapid access to the full content of the book version (4th Ed).

Installation was easy, and it takes up very little space on the hard disk.

The opening screen (Figure 1) enables access to the main sections; guidelines, chapters, search, bookmarks, local policy and help.

Figure 1 - Opening Screen
screenshot



A consistent interface is provided which offers the opportunity to add individual Local Policy Notes, Personal Notes and Bookmarks.

The guidelines are available alphabetically, each appears to follow a logical construction & be based on published evidence.

48 separate chapters are available on the CD, however only 2 could be viewed on this demonstration version; 19 External Compression and support in the management of chronic oedema & 23 Intravenous management.

The chapter contains a literature review of reference material, which gave a flavour of the publications used, however all appeared to be over 5 years old. The chapter contents appeared to cover the relevant issues, however in many areas the text would have been enhanced by the use of diagrams, photographs or video. The text was clear and (where used) diagrams were clear (see Figure 2).

Figure 2 - Chapter 19 Example Diagram
screenshot

The search facility enabling searching of the whole book or the chapter currently being viewed.

A limited help facility was included which explained the various functions and buttons used within the program and a small booklet was provided with the CD.

A trail facility enables the user to see the progress they have taken through the material.

Navigation within the material was fairly easy if you are happy following the linear progression of paper books, however will be limited and difficult for those familiar with other electronic resources and the world wide web e.g. the back button took you to previous pages within a section rather than the the page previously viewed. I eventually found this feature was available by clicking on <<. A lot of scrolling was required within each page because of the amount of text included.

I was unable to "copy & paste" text from the CD into any other application which could have been a useful feature - I do not know if this is available in the full version.

Generally I would not recommend this CD as I see little benefit over the paper version of the manual. Perhaps when the next edition is produced more advantage will be taken of the multimedia capabilities of the medium which provide this. The navigation system of the CD could also be improved.

The CD is published by;
The Royal Marsden NHS Trust/Blackwell Science Ltd.,
Osney Mead
Oxford OX2 0EL

ISSN: 1463-1342

and this demonstration copy was provided by;

MIME logoOpen Software Library Ltd., 164 Windsor Rd., Ashton-in-Makerfield Wigan WN4 9ES Tel: +44 (0)1942-712385 Fax: +44 (0)1942-722984
Email: info@osl.u-net.com
Web: http://www.osl.u-net.com/
 

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Page Created: 5.1.2000
Last Updated: 30.8.2003