This user-friendly textbook provides complete coverage of the essential nursing principles, concepts, and skills that are the foundation of a solid nursing education. The 6th edition features enhanced readability, an engaging format, and a new Companion CD. It consistently follows the 5-step nursing process framework with a strong focus on critical thinking that provides readers with a solid base for clinicals. As readers follow case studies through each clinical chapter, concrete examples illustrate how to address cultural diversity, teaching, assessment, evidence-based practice, and much more. * The 5-step nursing process provides a consistent framework for clinical chapters * Continuing Case Studies provide rich, realistic, ongoing examples of how to apply the nursing process and think critically by introducing a client and a nurse in each clinical chapter and following their interactions for each step of the nursing process * Synthesis in Practice boxes demonstrate how the nurse in the chapter Case Study uses the various components of critical thinking to plan care for the patient * Skills are presented in an easy-to-use 2-column format that includes rationales for each step and clearly explains both how and why nursing skills are performed * Care Plans, based on the chapter Case Study, demonstrate the application of the 5-step nursing process to individual patient problems to help readers understand how a plan is developed and how to evaluate care