The Client Health Record: A Documentation Manual for the Nurse Massage Therapist
by Bonnie Mackey, MSN, ARNP, CMT
Mackey Health Institute, Inc., 1900 S. Olive Ave.,
review by Carol Sanks

 

Bonnie Mackey does an excellent job of showcasing the professionalism of nurse massage therapy practice. Her instruction manual with its workshop format embodies the nursing process as it defines and describes it. She gives us all a way to take our practice to a higher level.

Mackey's manual guides the reader step by step, through all the phases: assessment, diagnosis, outcomes, care planning, implementation, and evaluation, and clearly sets forth the accepted standards from nursing and the legal system about each. She not only sets forth in clear terms what is usual and customary practice for the nurse massage therapist, but also provides numerous practice examples and sample forms. Any nurse massage therapist, independent or entrepreneurial nurse may adapt these forms for her own practice and establish her own nursing documentation system of which the client health record is a part.

Appendices, references, a glossary, index, resources, and a review challenge test are included. Contact hours in nursing as an independent study are pending.

Those inclined to practice professional nursing as a massage or touch therapist as well as those who are committed to the art and science of nursing or to nursing research will be well served to add this manual to their collection and to evaluate and elevate their own work according to this information.