Book Reviews

Berger J. Simon & Schuster; 2020. Hardcover; 288 pages.Change is hard. Changing someone’s mind is even harder. In The Catalyst, Berger explains that change is difficult because we often go about it the wrong way. He suggests that the way to influence others is by becoming a catalyst—someone who persuades others by removing barriers to change instead of pushing an agenda. Everyone has something they want to change either in their personal or professional lives. The concepts presented in this book may be applied to many situations we encounter in health care, such as educating patients, leading evidence-based practice change projects, or implementing new protocols.The book consists of 5 chapters. In each chapter, Berger focuses on a roadblock to overcome and provides a short case study that illustrates how to reduce the barriers to change. The author introduces the acronym REDUCE (reduce Reactance, ease Endowment, shrink Distance, alleviate Uncertainty, and find Corroborating Evidence), which helps readers focus on concepts that can help them minimize the resistance to change.The first chapter discusses the roadblock reactance, which occurs because when people feel pushed, they push back. To reduce reactance, Berger suggests telling people what not to do instead of telling them what to do. This chapter offers 4 ways to reduce reactance.In chapter 2, Berger discusses how people tend to value what they are already doing. When change arises, people compare the change to their status quo. If there are no advantages to them, people will not change. In this chapter, the author reviews how to ease endowment by highlighting the cost of inaction. Reducing the resistance to change is about helping people let go of their old ways.In chapter 3, Berger addresses the concept of distance. When we are trying to change someone’s mind, we hope that facts and evidence will help to persuade them. Unfortunately, that approach is not always successful, as evidenced by the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Rather than changing false beliefs, exposure to the truth may increase misperceptions and cause people to dig in their heels. Why? When people feel like someone is trying to convince them, they raise their guard. According to Berger, people have “a zone of acceptance”—a space close enough to their existing beliefs that they will consider new information. However, if the new information is too far outside of this zone, people reject or ignore it. Therefore, catalysts start from a place of agreement and then go from there.Uncertainty and “trialability” are discussed in chapter 4. Change usually involves uncertainty, and uncertainty makes people pause. Catalysts reduce this uncertainty by allowing people to experience things for themselves, such as a free sample or a test drive.The last chapter focuses on using corroborating evidence to drive change. According to Berger, preferences or opinions that people do not consider important are easy to change. However, if people have strong preferences or opinions about a topic, then they are typically more resistant to change. To overcome this roadblock, catalysts find reinforcement of or corroborating evidence for the preferred change.The Catalyst provides a nice overview of change management concepts, and it is a quick and easy read. Many of the concepts discussed in this book are used in the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses CSI Academy, which provides staff nurses with the knowledge and skills to lead unit-based change.The Catalyst helps the reader understand that changing people’s minds involves removing roadblocks and reducing barriers that keep people from taking action. Whether you are trying to change a person’s mind, a unit practice, or an organizational initiative, this book will teach you how to become a catalyst for change by working to reduce roadblocks.Cara C, Hills M, Watson J. Springer Publishing Company LLC; 2020. Paperback; 218 pages.In An Educator’s Guide to Humanizing Nursing Education, the authors reflect on the nurse educator role and guide nurse educators to use caring values, attitudes, and behaviors as the basis for success in all teacher-student interactions.This book applies human caring to the role of educator to stop the dehumanizing practices in nursing education, such as uncaring behaviors, unethical attitudes, incivility, harassment, bullying, and horizontal and lateral violence. In each chapter, the authors ask the reader to reflect on their way of being and caring as an educator and to seek an alternative way of teaching from the heart as an act of caring.Although An Educator’s Guide to Humanizing Nursing Education focuses on academic educators, the concepts and exercises translate to hospital-based nursing professional development and may help with the onboarding of new staff. Each chapter addresses different aspects of bringing caring to teaching and provides exercises for self-reflection. Case examples in each chapter bring the concepts of caring to life by exploring the effects of caring values, attitudes, and behaviors or the lack of them.This book is a wonderful gift to the profession of nursing education; it provides a space and road map to develop a more caring teacher-student dynamic. Amid a pandemic, with its risks of moral injury and posttraumatic stress for health care workers, we need more caring and humanistic approaches to educating nurses. This book offers nurse educators a path for reflection and strategies to create a more compassionate approach to education.