The fifth edition of this best-selling and trusted dictionary has been fully updated and revised to take account of recent developments in nursing practice and related fields. Updates cover general nursing, statistics, common scales and indexes, religion and spirituality, and commonly used abbreviations. Fully revised, this dictionary provides comprehensive coverage of the ever-expanding vocabulary of the nursing professions. In addition to specifically nursing terms, there are many entries in the fields of medicine, anatomy, physiology, psychiatry, nutrition, and pharmacology (including new drugs recently introduced into medical practice). Over 10,000 clear and concise entries, all written by medical and nursing specialists, cover the theory and practice of nursing. 100 helpful illustrations and 15 appendices covering nutritional requirements, reference values for biochemical and haematological data, interpretation of body mass index, and much more, make this an invaluable reference tool for all nursing students and professionals.