Completely updated by vascular nurses for vascular nurses, this is the best resource for the RN or APRN vascular nurse at any level and in any setting. It is essential reading for all involved in vascular nursing practice now and throughout this decade. The vascular nurse focuses on the needs and care of individuals and their families with known or at risk for vascular disease. This includes patient education, health promotion, care management, assessment for alterations of function, and strategies to help patients maintain, regain, and improve function and prevent disability. Vascular nurses also engage in research, policy, emerging healthcare delivery issues and technologies, and promoting community awareness of vascular disease and dysfunction to encourage early detection and prevention. This book can guide all aspects of their practice.

A workgroup of vascular nurse experts, convened by SVN and ANA, completely updated and expanded the previous edition. With input from nurses nationwide, their revision addressed and incorporated ongoing and anticipated changes in vascular nursing as well as in nursing and health care in general. The revised scope of vascular nursing practice - the who, what, where, when, why, and how of practice - sets the context for understanding and using the standards: the underlying assumptions, characteristics, environments and settings, education and training requirements, key issues and trends, and ethical and conceptual bases of vascular nursing.

The updated 16 standards frame any evaluation of the outcomes and goals of, and measure the accountabilities for, general and advanced practice vascular nurses. By meeting each standard's competencies, the vascular nurse can demonstrate compliance with that standard.

A foundational volume primarily for those directly involved with vascular nursing practice, education, and research, other nurses and allied healthcare providers, researchers, and scholars will find value in its content.

About ANA's Specialty Nursing Standards

Since the late 1990s, ANA has partnered with other nursing organizations to establish a formal process for recognition of specialty areas of nursing practice. This includes the criteria for approving the specialty itself and the scope statement, and an acknowledgment by ANA of the standards of practice for that specialty. Because of the significant changes in the evolving nursing and healthcare environments, ANA's approval of specialty nursing scope statements and its acknowledgment of specialty standards of practice remain valid for five years, starting from the publication date of the documents.

The standards in this publication are based on language from ANA's Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, Second Edition, a helpful supplement to this specialty text, which in turn is of optimal use with two complementary ANA texts: Nursing's Social Policy Statement and Guide to the Code of Ethics for Nurses. Together, these three books help guide nursing practice, thinking, and decision-making. The set is proving useful as a professional reference, classroom textbook, in-service training guide, and credentialing exam resource.