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Contexts of Nursing

An Introduction

  • 7th Edition - July 9, 2025
  • Latest edition
  • Authors: Debra Jackson, Ann Bonner, Jacqueline Bloomfield, John Daly
  • Language: English

Embarking on a nursing career Authored by leading nursing academics from Australia and New Zealand, Contexts of Nursing is an essential resource that equips students with a foun… Read more

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Description

Embarking on a nursing career


Authored by leading nursing academics from Australia and New Zealand, Contexts of Nursing is an essential resource that equips students with a foundational understanding of the theory, language and scholarship of nursing and healthcare. This book provides critical insights that shape the future practice of aspiring nurses, ensuring they are well prepared for the complexities of modern healthcare.


The book is an indispensable guide for nursing students, covering everything they need to know to enter the nursing profession—from ethics to patient safety, preparing for clinical placements, and working across diverse health settings.


The seventh edition of this well-established textbook has been completely updated, featuring five brand-new chapters. Designed to challenge and expand the reader's understanding, this edition prepares future nurses to enter the field with confidence, compassion, and with the skills needed to excel in a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape.

Key features

  • Prepares students for professional practice with a realistic overview of the contemporary nursing profession
  • Unique Australian and New Zealand content—not available elsewhere
  • Offers a range of views and voices, providing a unique and contemporary focus on Australian and New Zealand healthcare contexts
  • Useful for all levels of study, from new student nurses to those advancing their studies
  • Reflective questions and exercises within each chapter to stimulate critical thinking, learning and deep personal reflection
  • Case studies and other pedagogical features enhance learning

New to this edition

  • New chapter on patient perspectives and person-centred care in nursing
  • New chapter on nursing and the quest for care quality and patient safety
  • New chapter on nursing and family violence
  • New chapter on simulation learning in nursing
  • New chapter on nursing and the environment
  • New digital resource (small group activities)

Students and Instructor resources on Evolve:
Group activities

Table of contents

1. Presenting nursing … a career for life
Debra Jackson, Ann Bonner, Jacqueline Bloomfield and John Daly

2. Visioning the future by knowing the past
Madonna Grehan

3. Ethics in nursing
Megan-Jane Johnstone

4. An introduction to legal aspects of nursing practice
Jayne Hewitt

5. Cultural safety in nursing and midwifery
Rakime Elmir and Zoe Tipa

6. Key concepts informing nursing: caring, compassion and emotional competence
Jacqueline Bloomfield

7. Patient perspectives and person-centred care in nursing
Horas Wong and Georgia Tobiano

8. Nursing and the quest for care quality and patient safety
Brigid Gillespie and Debra Jackson

9. Becoming a critical thinker
Marion Tower

10. Power and politics in the practice of nursing
Sharon Brownie and Letitia Del Fabbro

11. Reflective practice: the importance and ways of reflection in nursing
Kim Usher

12. Interprofessional learning and working
Ann Bonner and Jacqueline Bloomfield

13. Engaging with social media: opportunities and challenges for nursing professionals
Matthew Barton, Michael Todorovic and Jessica Parrish-Stokes

14. Using digital health to enhance patient care and clinical quality
Debra Jackson, Rikki Jones and Kim Usher

15. Social justice, health disparities and equity in nursing
Denise Wilson, Stephen Neville and Lynore Geia

16. Nursing and family violence
Denise Wilson and Debra Jackson

17. Rural and remote nursing
Marie Hutchinson and Leah East

18. Primary healthcare and nursing
Elizabeth Halcomb

19. Simulation learning in nursing
Kerry Reid-Searl, Melanie Barlow, Danny Sidwell and Colleen Ryan

20. Preparing for and making meaning of clinical placement
Lynda Hughes and Sandra Johnston

21. Research in nursing
Thomas Buckley and Andrea P. Marshall

22. Becoming a nurse leader
Patricia M. Davidson and Kelly Lewer

23. Nursing and the environment
Kim Usher and Naomi Tutticci

24. Global health and nursing
Michele Rumsey

Product details

  • Edition: 7
  • Latest edition
  • Published: July 9, 2025
  • Language: English

About the authors

DJ

Debra Jackson

Professor Debra Jackson AO is a distinguished nurse scientist and scholar, and her career has spanned clinical practice, academic work, research and scholarship. She is a Fellow of the Australian College of Nursing, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). In 2015 she won a Principal Fellowship of the NIHR‐funded Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, awarded in recognition of sustained contribution to generating knowledge to enhance the care of NHS patients. In 2019, her work was honoured through her being awarded Officer of the Order of Australia(AO) for distinguished service to medical education in the field of nursing practice and research as an academic and author. In 2020 Professor Jackson was named as Australia’s leading nurse researcher by The Australian newspaper in their list of Australia’s Top 250 Researchers. This was based on highest number of citations from papers published in the last five years in the 20 top journals in the field. In 2020 she was appointed Fellowship Ad Eundem, Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland.
Affiliations and expertise
Professor of Nursing, Sydney Nursing School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

AB

Ann Bonner

Ann Bonner works at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University, Australia Kidney Health Service, Metro North Health, Australia.
Affiliations and expertise
School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University, Australia Kidney Health Service, Metro North Health, Australia

JB

Jacqueline Bloomfield

Professor of Nursing Education, University of Sydney; Honorary Professor, Queen’s University Belfast
Affiliations and expertise
Professor of Nursing Education, University of Sydney; Honorary Professor, Queen’s University Belfast

JD

John Daly

Emeritus Professor John Daly works at the University of Western Sydney; Emeritus Professor, University of Technology, Sydney; Honorary Professor, University of Wollongong, Australia
Affiliations and expertise
Emeritus Professor, University of Western Sydney; Emeritus Professor, University of Technology, Sydney; Honorary Professor, University of Wollongong, Australia