Wonderful and Weird

Malcolm King, RN, MS, CS, worked as a psychiatric nurse for forty-four years, in twelve hospitals, three countries, and four US states, starting as a nursing assistant and eventually becoming a director of nursing. His book, Wonderful and Weird, is a compilation of the clinical case studies and administrative issues that were most influential in guiding him to a better understanding of the role of the psychiatric nurse and nursing administrator in providing the best possible care to their patients. The book reviews the positive and negative impacts on psychiatric nursing practice as the theoretical models of psychiatry moved from the psychosocial-psychodynamic model to the current biological-medical model, and how those models themselves may be influenced by political trends. The particular issues for the nurse working with a forensic psychiatry population are discussed, focusing on the need for nurses to be aware of their professional and personal boundaries with this patient group. Wonderful and Weird will be of interest to those psychiatric nurses making decisions regarding the development of their own careers, and to both educators of psychiatric nurses and educators of general nursing students doing their dreaded psychiatric rotation.