Nursing Skills

Reviewed by Lisa Muto, Assistant Professor, Marshall University on 5/13/26

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The textbook is comprehensive for an entry-level nursing skills course and covers a wide range of essential nursing skills. It also includes different learning tools like case examples, practice questions, and other resources that help students understand and apply the material.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

The information in this textbook appears accurate and consistent with the nursing skills and concepts commonly taught in prelicensure nursing programs. The content is clear, follows current nursing practice standards, and includes appropriate clinical examples and step-by-step skill instructions. Some of the topics would benefit from more updated visuals and additional real-world clinical examples.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The content is relevant to current entry-level nursing education and covers the foundational skills students are expected to learn in prelicensure nursing programs. It connects well to real patient care situations, though some parts can feel a bit basic.

Clarity rating: 5

The textbook is written clearly and is easy for students to follow.

Consistency rating: 5

The textbook is consistent in its organization and formatting throughout the chapters. Skills are presented in a similar step-by-step structure, which makes the material easier for students to follow.

Modularity rating: 5

The structure of this book works well for nursing courses where instructors may focus on individual skills or units separately.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The textbook is well organized, with content grouped into clear nursing skill areas and presented in a consistent step-by-step format. It’s generally easy to follow and helps students find information efficiently.

Interface rating: 4

Navigation can sometimes feel a little less smooth depending on how the online version is accessed.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The grammar is clear and appropriate for nursing students, with mostly straightforward, easy-to-understand language and no major issues with sentence structure or clarity.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

The book includes appropriate and generally inclusive language and touches on cultural awareness in patient care. However, cultural considerations are not deeply developed throughout all sections and are mostly addressed at a basic level.

Reviewed by Alexis Black, Associate Professor, Bunker Hill Community College on 1/20/26

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This open access Nursing Skills textbook covers all areas of basic nursing skills for entry level nurses. This book includes and effective index that makes it easy to locate skills and information.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

To the best of my knowledge, this book provides accurate, error-free, and unbiased information.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

This book provides up-to-date information on basic nursing skills. The skills are presented in a way that will be easy to update if and when best practices change.

Clarity rating: 5

This book provides adequate context without becoming overcrowded with less relevant information. It is easy for the reader to comprehend at a basic nursing level.

Consistency rating: 5

This text is consistent in terminology and framework throughout the entirety of the book.

Modularity rating: 5

This book is broken up into smaller reading sections and subunits that make it easy to assign topics.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

This text is presented in a logical and clear fashion that is user friendly and very easy to follow.

Interface rating: 5

This text is free of significant interface issues.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

This text does not have any grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This book is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. This book includes examples of various cultures and ethnicities.

This book is extremely easy to read, and the organization makes it simple to follow. I would love to use this book in my classroom; I feel that my students would benefit from this resource.

Reviewed by Emily Machones, Nursing Faculty, Normandale Community College on 4/22/25

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

There are a few areas I would like to see added into this type of resource that I didn't see in my rather brief exploration: airway suctioning (oral, NP, trach) and oxygenation options for treatment like nebs and CPAP up to ventilatory support. Mention of TPN and IV fluid bolus practice I did not see at first glance. Sterile catheter insertion (indwelling and straight cath) would be helpful as well. Even a review of injectable medications and PPE usage would be nice.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

What I have reviewed seems accurate. There are YouTube videos that I have used myself in theory and lab scenarios that hopefully would continue to be error-free and unbiased.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

So far, the resources I have seen in the book match up with current practice. My question would be how often are evidence-based practice changes reviewed for this type of resource? If someone used it via ebook alone the updates would hopefully be seamless, but, if downloaded instead, could present some challenges with alignment from semester to semester.

Clarity rating: 5

Reading level seems easy with equity in mind. I wish the checklists were more like a checklist in format. It would be useful to print them out and be able to use them in a lab scenario for a CVAD dressing, for example.

Consistency rating: 5

Terminology seems to be consistent throughout the chapters.

Modularity rating: 5

I like that there are separate sections and you can break it down further with the content button. The button to return to the top of the page is great!

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Structure and organization of Content menu is easy to use.

Interface rating: 5

Great use of H5P practice questions and exercises (flashcards, for example) throughout to test knowledge during interaction with the resource.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No identified grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

First glance, things look equitable. I did not necessarily see many varieties of race, etc. in my brief review.

Great resource!

Reviewed by Lisa Alley, Nursing Instructor for NUR 120 Fundamentals in Nursing, Spartanburg Community College on 10/10/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The text does indeed cover all areas and ideas of Foundations in Nursing appropriately and provides an effective index and/or glossary. All needed Nursing Skills for Fundamentals are included. It has great videos that helps to capture the different learning styles as well.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

Content is accurate, error-free and unbiased. It has great resources embedded throughout the book. Lays a great foundation for the content provided that would lead to further concept building.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Content is up-to-date, but not in a way that will quickly make the text obsolete within a short period of time. Change is always occurring in health care with newest evidenced based practices updating all the time. The text is written and arranged in such a way that necessary updates will be relatively easy and straightforward to implement.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is written in lucid, accessible prose, and provides adequate context for the world of nursing and health care. It is clear and concise.

Consistency rating: 5

The text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework among the Nursing profession. The writer appears to be consistent with content in each chapter.

Modularity rating: 5

The text is easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course . The text is not overly self-referential, and is easily reorganized and realigned with various subunits of a course without presenting much disruption to the reader. It is labeled and easy to navigate and access for assignments.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion and is very easy to follow. Well organized and easy to follow. Very user friendly.

Interface rating: 4

The text is free of significant interface issues, including navigation problems, distortion of images/charts, and any other display features that may distract or confuse the reader. It is very user friendly. Very easy to launch over to other websites that I typically spend more time researching on my own with my current curriculum. I did not have any issues.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammatical errors noted from the material that I reviewed.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. It makes use of examples that are inclusive of a variety of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds. It reviews the importance to assess, include and allow for each individual client cultural needs and awareness of others and appears to be built in throughout each chapter.

I would consider using this text book in my Fundamentals class.

Reviewed by Sandra Wilson, Director of Nursing, Crowder College on 6/15/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Thoroughly covers basic nursing skills for entry level nurses.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Information consistent and clear with all steps listed.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Basic skills do not change frequently but this book is a 2001 publish date so there is not anything obsolte at this time.

Clarity rating: 5

Clear and concise presentation of material.

Consistency rating: 5

Structure repeats with each skill listed.

Modularity rating: 5

Easily assignable to students with specific content.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Clear and concise. FO\ormat repeats itself with each new topic.

Interface rating: 5

I had no trouble with interface or navigation.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammatical errors found.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Did not see a specific focus or diversion from diversity, equity or inclusion.

I'm going to try to convince my faculty to give this FREE resource a try. Seems to be very well presented and valuable to students as a resource for learning basic nursing skills.

Reviewed by Dr. Kristin Kuhlmann, Assistant Professor, Eastern New Mexico University on 2/18/22

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

In addition to the major area of physical assessment, students can access instructional videos, short pathophysiology on the body system, charting exercises, as well as indications of when to contact the health care provider with abnormal findings.

Content Accuracy rating: 3

The information provided is accurate. Abnormal findings/medical condition for each body system is shallow, and will require follow up through other texts and course content.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The topic has high relevance for nursing students. A danger with providing links to other resources is that care must be taken to assure additional resources remain accurate as well.

Clarity rating: 3

The text is clearly written. However going from chapter to chapter, or section to section within the chapters is difficult to negotiate.

Consistency rating: 4

The chapters are organized in a consistent manner.

Modularity rating: 4

The modularity is easy to navigate; headings help negotiate the organization of the book.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The table of contents is well organized and consistent.

Interface rating: 3

The ebook and pdf versions are difficult to negotiate and the print is very small for some of the features.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

Several medical terms were misspelled, but overall it is clearly written.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The differences in variation in growth and development based on age is introduced. Not much information is provided which relates to cultural diversity.

The photos and organization of the book are very user-friendly. Excellent information related to physical assessment skills and knowledge. Additional resources are helpful as they relate to videos demonstrating physical assessment technique and related medical conditions for each body system. It is difficult to negotiate between sections and chapters.