Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.

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Basic Scientific Food Preparation Lab Manual
Iowa State University Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition · Iowa State University Digital Press · 2023
This lab book is intended for use in both the lab and kitchen. Each section of the book contains learning objectives, lab problems to be solved, recipes, questions, and observation charts for the input of data.

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Comparisons of the Codex Alimentarius Principles of Nutrition Labelling and Relevant Guidelines of Taiwan and the United States
I-Yuan Chiang; Yi-Wen Yuan; Hsuan Liang · Software Liberty Association, Taiwan · 2022
Codex Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling and The US 21 CFR PART 101.9 Nutrition Labeling are the primary references for Taiwan FDA to establish and amend the nutrition labeling regulations. In January 2022, Codex updated the Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling. We finished the translation in April and integrated the related regulations from Taiwan and the US into this book. The expected audiences include food manufacturers in the international food trade and college students in food and nutrition majors. We hope the bilingual book can provide a general framework for the readers.

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Medical-Surgical Nursing
Christy Bowen; Bridget Carey; Jessica Palozie; Maren Reinholdt · OpenStax · 2024
Medical-Surgical Nursing is a comprehensive and engaging resource for nursing students, equipping them with the essential knowledge and skills required to provide high-quality care. Building on the foundational knowledge and skills acquired in previous nursing courses, this textbook expands students’ learning with concepts in medical-surgical nursing. The offering provides the background to ensure that nursing students are well-versed in both the science and art of nursing, capable of critical thinking, clinical judgment, and compassionate care. Medical-Surgical Nursing encompasses a broad range of patient-care situations, from managing chronic conditions to providing postoperative care. The material includes concise explanations to facilitate understanding, as well as rich reviews of pathophysiology, ensuring students grasp essential concepts without becoming overwhelmed. Beyond theoretical knowledge, the text emphasizes the development of practical skills and competencies, and incorporates evidence-based best practices into each of its 38 chapters.

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Maternal-Newborn Nursing
Amy Giles; Regina Prusinski; Laura Wallace · OpenStax · 2024
Maternal-Newborn Nursing introduces students to the concepts and skills related to pregnancy, birth, postpartum, newborn care, reproductive health, and social determinants related to those topics. Written and thoroughly reviewed by experienced nurse educators, the material focuses on patient safety, mental health, and inclusive care, and offers robust real-world scenarios and situational patient education experiences to apply concepts to practice. Maternal-Newborn Nursing builds on the students’ existing knowledge and skills and expands their learning to new concepts and considerations. Students will be able to implement the Clinical Judgement Measurement Model to recognize, analyze, prioritize, create, act on, and evaluate outcomes throughout the many conditions presented across the life stages. The offering integrates core frameworks such as QSEN, and its robust sets of practice questions, unfolding case studies, and additional resources support the Next Generation NCLEX.

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Health Promotion in Health Care – Vital Theories and Research
Gørill Haugan; Monica Eriksson · Springer · 2021
This open access textbook represents a vital contribution to global health education, offering insights into health promotion as part of patient care for bachelor’s and master’s students in health care (nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiotherapists, social care workers etc.) as well as health care professionals, and providing an overview of the field of health science and health promotion for PhD students and researchers. Written by leading experts from seven countries in Europe, America, Africa and Asia, it first discusses the theory of health promotion and vital concepts. It then presents updated evidence-based health promotion approaches in different populations (people with chronic diseases, cancer, heart failure, dementia, mental disorders, long-term ICU patients, elderly individuals, families with newborn babies, palliative care patients) and examines different health promotion approaches integrated into primary care services.

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Principles of Epidemiology: A Primer
Christy Bazan; Pedro Hallal; Rachel Hoopsick; Sheena Martenies · University of Illinois Library - Urbana · 2026
Principles of Epidemiology: A Primer is an open-access, introductory textbook crafted for students and professionals in public health and allied health fields. The textbook is designed to provide an overview of the basic principles of epidemiology, providing a brief historical overview, summarizing tools, processes and principles of epidemiology and their contribution to public health.

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Organic and Alternative Livestock Health: A Guide for Veterinarians, Animal Health Workers and Animal Owners
Katie Steneroden; Jenna Bjork; Delaine Quaresma · Iowa State University Digital Press · 2026
This open-access book will introduce veterinarians, veterinary technicians and their students, extension professionals, and animal owners to organic and alternative livestock concerns practices. Specific topics include background of organic agriculture, disease prevention, basic treatments, communication, veterinary practice management, and regulations. The basics of alternatively raised livestock are not traditionally taught in veterinary schools. This book provides a starting point for those interested in non-conventional livestock care to learn more about this growing, evolving area of livestock health practice.

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Human Anatomy and Physiology Laboratory Booklet
Martilias Farrell · The Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks (PA-ADOPT) · 2025
This laboratory manual presents a diverse collection of hands-on and interactive activities designed to enhance understanding of human anatomy and physiology. Students will engage with skeletal anatomy by creating and decoding messages using bone terminology with anatomical models and by performing bone measurements to analyze relationships with physical attributes. The manual delves into neuroscience by investigating the perception of binaural beats through auditory experiments and by utilizing the Neuronify simulation tool to construct and analyze neural circuits demonstrating synaptic summation. Physiological concepts are explored through experiments on respiratory rate dynamics in response to exercise and the principles of lung surfactant action. Additionally, students will apply anatomical terminology to describe dance movements. These activities collectively foster skills in data collection, critical analysis, and collaborative learning.

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Population Health for Nurses
Jessica Ochs; Sherry Roper; Susan Schwartz · OpenStax · 2024
Population Health for Nurses prepares nurses to develop interventions, policies, and practices that promote health equity and improved health outcomes across the health care delivery continuum. The text emphasizes the social determinants of health and how nurses can plan and implement health promotion and disease prevention interventions. It takes a holistic perspective, connecting human health behavior to the dynamic, ongoing interactions of the person, social factors, and the physical environment in which people are born, live, learn, play, work, and age. OpenStax Population Health for Nurses uses a logical, thematic organization that breaks down content into manageable chunks. It presents the material in 35 chapters, organized into 7 thematic units. The text defines and distinguishes among the interrelated nursing areas of population health, public health, and community health nursing, providing both historical context and up-to-date research to help students make connections across content that can inform practice. The result is a holistic approach that applies theoretical concepts to the practical assessment, diagnosis, planning, implementation, and evaluation steps of client care and community-tailored interventions.

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Culinary Medicine
Cheryl Casey; Scott Going; Lauren McCullough; Melanie Hingle · University of Arizona · 2024
This peer-reviewed Culinary Medicine textbook is aimed at individuals and communities seeking to implement food-based disease prevention programs. While the primary audience is students taking a 400/500-level nutrition class, this book can be used and adapted by anyone. It includes recipes and case studies, as well as information on kitchen skills, food safety, menu planning, shopping and budgeting, popular diets, dietary supplements, food demonstrations, seed-to-table programs, community partnerships, and culturally centered approaches. There are also chapters on macronutrients, micronutrients, and bioactive compounds.

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The Basics of Health, Wellness, and Fitness
Jessica Alsup · ROTEL · 2024
This book is written for anyone who could benefit from learning more about health, wellness, and fitness. Throughout the text, readers will learn about health and wellness, setting goals, physical activity and exercise, cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength and endurance, body composition, flexibility, nutrition, stress management, as well as self-care and sleep. In addition to providing important information about the above topics, the text also includes self assessment assignments and self-reflection opportunities. It is the aim of the author that readers increase their understanding regarding the idea that we are all dealt different hands in life, and we all have our history and our own experiences, but one thing we all have in common is that we can start now from wherever we are and make small changes to improve our health, wellness, and fitness.

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Ultrasound Physics and its Application in Medicine
Arbin Thapaliya; Alec Sithole; Michael Welsh; Gaston Dana · PALNI · 2024
Ultrasound has a wide range of medical applications. Some of these include obstetrics (monitoring the progress of pregnancy), oncology (monitoring the growth of tumors), cardiology (visualizing the heart function and physiology), biopsy (guiding needles in various procedures), and physiotherapy. For example, today, an estimated 60-70% of pregnant women in the United States undergo ultrasound examination during pregnancy. An estimated 250 million fetal ultrasound examinations are performed every year in the USA. In the last few decades, ultrasound technology has expanded to medical imaging in various other specialties: Anesthesiology, Critical Care, Emergency Medicine, General Pediatrics, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB-GYN), Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Physiatry, Sports Medicine, and Surgery. The increasing demand in the use of ultrasound technology in various biomedical fields points to a future in which medical professionals will be required to possess a general knowledge of ultrasound technology. While currently most medical professionals rely on technicians to perform the imaging studies, there can be a high degree of operator dependent results. Therefore, a solid foundation of the technological properties of ultrasound would give health care providers a competitive advantage in the future. This is one of the first goals of this textbook. This textbook also covers general aspects of diagnostic ultrasound providing an excellent reference for both beginners and professionals. In addition, this textbook has end-of-the-chapter experiments that will help educators conduct labs for students and any other learners to enhance their learning and solidify the practical skills.

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Nutrition for Nurses
Emerald Bilbrew; Jody Vogelzang; Kelli Whittington · OpenStax · 2024
Nutrition for Nurses is structured to support the flexible integration of nutrition content across both system-based and nursing competency-based curricula. It can be used whether nutrition is taught as a standalone course or part of another nursing course. The table of contents for Nutrition for Nurses presents content in 20 chapters, organized into 9 thematic units. The text emphasizes evidence-based practice and holistic assessment to facilitate the integration of nutritional awareness for pre-licensure nursing students in the provision of client-centered care. Nutrition for Nurses helps students develop sound clinical judgment as well as a deep understanding of the impact of nutrition on body systems across the lifespan. Written and reviewed by highly experienced faculty, Nutrition for Nurses includes a detailed narrative, extensive features and learning resources, and ample student support. The presentation utilizes concepts promoting the development of clinical judgment by building upon the systematic model developed by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN).
!["Overweight" Bodies, Real and Imagined [Revised Edition]](/api/files/covers/otl-1622.webp)
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"Overweight" Bodies, Real and Imagined [Revised Edition]
Sarah Gilleman · ROTEL · 2023
This compilation gathers OER sources on body weight, nutrition, and movement, and it also problematizes the cultural meaning of these readings. Roughly, this anthology is divided into two parts--informational and theoretical--in depicting how medical research and journalism influence and are influenced by social stereotypes, constructed ideas about bodies, food, and individual choices within social systems.

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Inclusive Approach to Anthropometric Body Measurement Assessments
Shelly LaForest; Michelle Hughes; Lisa Nielsen · Toronto Metropolitan University · 2024
“Inclusive Approach to Anthropometric Body Measurement Assessments” is an open educational resource (OER) created for undergraduate nursing students at the introductory level. The resource introduces students to body measurements, but does so in an inclusive manner. This resource is a unique contribution to nursing education as content is theoretically informed by an inclusive approach to assessment that incorporates culturallyresponsive techniques related to race/ethnicity, gender/sex/ sexual orientation, body sizes/types, and ability/disability. It is part of the first health assessment resource that is informed by clinical judgment with the goal to facilitate students’ clinical decision making and ability to prioritize care by recognizing and acting on cues and signs of clinical deterioration. Interactive clinical judgment activities and formative assessments to evaluate a student’s learning are integrated throughout the resource. The integration of clinical judgment throughout this resource will support students’ capacity to enhance patient safety and equitable health outcomes as well as their success in writing national nursing exams to become licensed to work as a Nurse.

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Human Reproduction
Hala Bastawros · Iowa State University Digital Press · 2023
This open textbook is designed to provide a deep understanding of the biological and biomedical aspects of human reproduction, covering a wide range of topics from basic reproductive biology to clinical applications. The book starts with foundational knowledge and progresses to more advanced topics while also including real-world clinical orientation for practical contexts.

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Social Determinants of Health in Nursing Education: Integrating Into Curriculum and Practice
Dawn Bowker; Karla Kerkove · Iowa State University Digital Press · 2023
This workbook was established with nurse educators and nursing students in mind to provide knowledge, guidance, and support for integrating SDOH across the nursing education spectrum. Contents from this workbook are applicable to pre-licensure baccalaureate nursing programs, RN-to-BSN programs, and graduate education. A strategic approach for this workbook was purposefully designed to meet the structure of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) Clinical Judgment Measure Model® with a combined focus on the four spheres of care supported by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN®). Our goal with this workbook is to lead educators and students on a directed path of discovering how SDOH is an integral part of nursing practice and how nurses can implement effective interventions to positively impact the health outcomes of individuals, families, communities, and aggregates.

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Case Studies for Health, Research and Practice in Australia and New Zealand
Nicola Whiteing; Lucy Shinners; Nicole Graham; Dima Nasrawi · Southern Cross University · 2023
The OER includes case studies of 5 families from a variety of backgrounds in metropolitan and regional Queensland (QLD), New South Wales (NSW), and Victoria (VIC), Australia. Case studies have been popular in nursing to help students bring their learning to life and enhance their critical thinking. However, often case studies appear in one unit or one particular content area to aid students learning for a particular condition or point in time. Taking a transformational, place-based approach, the OER case studies for health are set within metropolitan and regional areas, so learning is contextual and relatable. Case studies increase in complexity so that students can be introduced to and ‘get to know’ the families from their first year of study. As students progress through their studies, they meet the families again in different, often more complex scenarios. The families experience a variety of political and socio-economic circumstances, which helps students to learn about various healthcare contexts, build knowledge and understanding about the families’ circumstances from a holistic, person-centred, interprofessional perspective, and engage at a deeper level.

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Community interventions in obesity-related chronic diseases
Sherri Cirignano; Sara Elnakib; Karen Ensle; Christine Zellers · Rutgers University Libraries (RUcore) · 2023
The rate of obesity continues to climb in the United States in all age groups. National reports, including the Trust for America’s Health annual report State of Obesity: Better Policies for a Healthier America, highlight key findings and policy recommendations. The need to continue to work towards stabilization of the obesity epidemic could not be more important as consequences of this chronic disease can be dire, potentially affecting physical health with an increase in risk for chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and several types of cancer as well as potentially affecting behavioral health. Curbing the high rates of obesity is particularly of importance when considering the prevalence of childhood obesity, which is on the rise not only in the United States but is also increasing globally. Although there are certain risk factors such as genetics that are not modifiable in this group, there are many dietary, physical activity and environmental factors that are modifiable through lifestyle changes. This course will explore ways to address these lifestyle changes for children through adults with both federally- and NGO- based community interventions that are working towards combating overweight and obesity and how they aim to do so with a health equity lens in mind.

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Career Cornerstones: Establishing a Foundation for a Career in Healthcare (Revised)
Andrea Nelson; Katherine Greene · University of West Florida Pressbooks · 2025
Career Cornerstones: Establishing a Foundation for a Career in Healthcare (Revised) is an Open Educational Resource (OER) that focuses on career skills required for students entering their respective health profession's program. This book is designed to help students be successful not only in their health profession's educational program, but also as they start to intern or work in healthcare settings. This resource is targeted for Healthcare Administration, Health Sciences, and Pre-Professional students.