For Immediate Release
Contact: Daniel Wackershauser, Marketing and PR Specialist
Phone: 608.822.2303
Mail: 1800 Bronson Blvd., Fennimore, WI 53809
Date of Release: May 19, 2021
Proceeds from Esser’s book to fund nursing scholarships
Fennimore -Fennimore, Wis – Longtime Southwest Wisconsin Technical College math instructor Pete Esser has recently released a new textbook for nursing students. The book titled, Dimensional Analysis in Nursing, provides students with the skills needed to accurately perform drug calculations. The topics align with the math skills students must learn during their two-year program of study. The book is centered around a problem-solving technique called dimensional analysis. It is a flexible tool that grows to meet the needs of students as they move from entry-level to more advanced problems.
Pete Esser
“This book is really the culmination of all the questions and requests made by Southwest Tech nursing students over the years,” said Esser. “Initially, I tried to meet their needs by writing-up worksheets and publishing them on my website. Over time, the collection of worksheets grew but they were getting difficult to organize and didn’t fit into a cohesive arrangement. I decided to write a sequence of modules that would be published on my website. They would fit together and form a logical sequence. As I started writing the initial modules, I realized that I was actually writing a textbook. So, I made a few changes, then set to work creating the textbook in my spare time. It took around six to nine months to put it all together. Around March of 2020 I finally published the textbook on Lulu.com.”
“The next step is to find more adopters of the textbook,” added Esser. “Perhaps in the upcoming school year I will start to contact health occupations departments around the country to drum up some business. Many schools are looking for low-cost alternatives (called OER – Open Educational Resources) to replace their existing textbooks which can be prohibitively expensive for many students. I think this textbook could improve outcomes for nursing students and save them some money too.”
The textbook is written in a conversational tone, which Esser has used in his previous textbooks; Math Review and Applied Math. This writing approach makes it easier for the books to be used by independent study students. The new nursing textbook also features sample problems explained with detailed step-by-step instructions. There are 102 sample problems found amongst the 25 chapters of content. The textbook also features 177 practice problems, with a full answer key, along with 90 more supplemental problems.
A nursing professor from the southern United States emailed Esser and commented that the thoroughness of the explanations helped her quickly determine where her students were “getting stalled,” thus saving her time in the classroom.
The book is currently available in eBook form in order to keep the cost low. It is currently priced at $5 per copy with the proceeds going into a fund that will eventually be used for nursing scholarships at Southwest Tech. This textbook and others written by Esser are found at his publisher’s website, https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/pesser.
Esser noted that more modules (chapters) will be added to the book in the near future. Portions of the textbook along with a large amount of other math resources are available at his website; https://swtcmathscience.wixsite.com/swtcmath.
- Written by Carley Rider
PR Assistant
| Southwest Wisconsin Technical College is one of 16 institutions that comprise the Wisconsin Technical College System. Southwest Tech offers more than 60 programs in a wide variety of disciplines. Courses are offered on campus, online and in a blended format. The college provides apprenticeship, certificate, technical diploma, and associate degree programs that respond to district workforce needs and prepare student for family-sustaining jobs and career advancement. |