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Perhaps I should begin by saying that I am not, in terms of ethnic origin, English. My parents emigrated to England from the Irish Republic, and we have all lived in Britain for so long that no one can see the join - or can they? Some years ago, my mother was admitted to hospital for a routine operation. Award nurse saw her obviously foreign name on the admissions list, and concluded she must be Asian. Accordingly, she arranged for my mother to have a bed in the same bay as other Asian women, and ordered her a curry for lunch. Part of me was angry at the stereotypical thinking rhat every­ one with a strange name must be Asian, but I had to concede that I myself knew little about other cultures. My own patients came from a variety of cultural traditions, but neither I nor my colleagues knew very much about them. What information we had was culled directly from patients and their families in a haphazard 'do this' or 'don't do that' basis. Because we had no understanding of the traditions, staff could become exasperated over what they interpreted as 'awkwardness'. Our inadequacies were further highlighted when patients did not speak English: there was always the question of who could translate for them, and whether they fully understood their illnesses and their treat­ ments. For some, the experience of being in hospital must have been frightening.

The prime motivation for this book has come from my ex­ perience with those who suffer from incontinence and from my contact, both in the clinical area and as a teacher, with those who care for them. Over the years I have developed a pas­ sionate interest in the subject and there is little doubt that in general terms the level of knowledge and awareness relating to the topic has increased. Despite this it is still apparent that continence promotion remains a somewhat fringe subject, both in practice and in theory. One of the difficulties which has become clear from discussion with nurses of all grades is that they feel that the only people who are capable of mastering the practicalities of continence promotion are full time continence advisers. It is unlikely that this view has stemmed from con­ tinence advisers themselves (those that I know are usually very grateful for all the help that they can get), or even from a reluctance on the part of nursing staff to develop their skills. The root of the difficulty appears to be a lack of awareness on the part of nurses of the skills that are required for continence promotion and also how they can be put into practice. The aim of this book is to provide a reference text to enable all practising nurses to take an active part in continence pro­ motion and the appropriate management of incontinence.

The social model of disability emerged from the work of the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation (UPIAS) who published The Fundamental Principles of Disability in 1976. Central to this were two themes: that it was the experience and expertise of disabled people that was crucial in developing a true understanding of the phenomenon of disability and that the main problems of disabled people were externally located in the disabling barriers and social restrictions that they faced. Building upon these themes and the rigid distinction between impair­ ment and disability that the Fundamental Principles insisted upon, I further developed the social model as the basis of more appropriate professional practice as part of my own work in teaching disability issues to social workers (Oliver, 1983). Subsequently the social model became the accepted vehicle for the promotion and development of disability equality training (Campbell and Gillespie-Sells, 1991) and the basis of the collective self-organization of disabled people into a powerful political movement (Campbell and Oliver, 1996). Outside of social work, the impact of the social model of disability on professional consciousness, let alone practice, has been somewhat limited.

This book is aimed at beginners. If you are totally confused and dismayed at the prospect of undertaking a research project, read on. If you are an expert in research, this is not the book for you unless you merely wish to revise your existing knowledge. Above all this book is intended as an outline and a guide. It does not provide a definitive recipe on how to conduct a research project. You will learn by your own studies which methods and techniques suit you best and how to modify ideas to meet your own requirements. NB Therapist is referred to as she in the text for simplicity. Acknowledgements lowe particular thanks to Dr Naomi Fraser-Holland for her substantial contributions to the production of this book. My sincere thanks also go to Marion Walker, Dr John Gladman, Dr Nadina Lincoln, Dr Alison Hammond and Julia Nuthall for ideas, information and advice, and to Jane Greaves for her wonderful cartoons. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance of colleagues at the Stroke Research Unit, City Hospital, Nottingham, and at the Derby School of Occupational Therapy. I am grateful to Jo Campling for her support and guidance and to the staff at Chapman & Hall for all their assistance. Finally special thanks to my husband, Dr Tim Daniel, for his encouragement and good humour.

Michael Bowman's book forms a useful reference source for Health Service staff interested in the role of the professional nurse and the dis charge of professional accountability. I am delighted that this work competently deals with nursing's dilemmas about its therapeutic role over a crucial period in its history, especially the effects of major structural change on the profession between the period from the implementation of the Salmon and Mayston Reports up to the present time and Project 2000. The picture is in Dr Bowman's opinion not a very happy one from the viewpoint of the profession. Some of the changes that have taken place have involved some loss of professional cohesion and were independent of the organizational framework of the National Health Service. Nevertheless, it is disturbing that nurses appear during the period covered to have Ilad a quite inadequate input to the shaping of Health Policy. There are already signs that the nursing profession has begun to absorb the warnings ci ted in Dr Bowman's study. However, in the wake ofthe National Health Service reforms and the implementing of a business culture in the National Health Service, nurses may find the message of this book only too familiar. That does not for one moment mean that the nursing input to corporate strategy and general direction should be defensive or reactionary. British nursing continues to be highly regarded by the general public.

This book aims to give health professionals a balanced and indepen­ dent overview of massage and aromatherapy. I have written it because, despite growing interest, there is a dearth of professional literature on this subject. This book aims to cover a number of topics which are under-represented in existing publications. These include: • scientific research in massage and aromatherapy; • the use of the therapies in medical settings; • the knowledge base of massage and aromatherapy; • professional and managerial issues; • safety. Understanding of these subjects is essential for any reasoned evalu­ ation of massage and aromatherapy. Yet this book is probably the first to provide information suitable for this task. At the current time of writing, almost all books on massage and aroma therapy have been written with the lay public in mind. The texts recommended to students and practitioners by the foremost schools and institutions are exactly the same as those available in health food shops as general introductions for prospective patients. Not surprisingly, such books generally fail to include in-depth discussions of professional issues.

Since 1990 there has been considerable development in research in nursing practice which uses a model of nursing. This is due to many reasons. However, the aims of this book remain the same as for the first edition -to present the reader with current reports of studies in nursing practice which use a model of nursing as their base. I will also criticize the research methods that the studies use, to give the reader an indication of the credi­ bility of the findings, as well as commenting on the popularity of the model in different countries and cultures. A development that is possible since the last edition is the ability to give some indication of why the model of nursing was used; in other words what was the author's intention in studying nursing practice in depth with the use of a model. This will give some indication of the impli­ cations of the authors' work; I will develop this point further in the Introduction to this edition. Therefore this edition is not simply an updating of further studies published since 1990. Since the last edition there has also been some comment on the models that I included. I am grateful to Margaret Clarke (1991) and others who have pointed out that Neuman's model should be included, and there is therefore a chapter devoted to this in this edition.