Handbook of Clinical Skills

Jane Dacre, BSc MBBS MD FRCP
Senior Lecturer in Clinical Skills, Consultant Physician and Rheumatologist, Centre for Health Informatics and Multiprofessional Education, University College Hospital, London, UK

Peter Kopelman, MD FRCP
Professor of Medicine/Honorary Consultant Physician, The Royal London Hospital, London, UK

Contributors: Stephen Brearley, Clive Spence-Jones, Mark Weaver, Peter White.

Over the last two decades, the medical practitioner’s traditional skills of history taking and examination have expanded, with a greater emphasis now placed on communication skills, and the skills required to master a range of increasingly complex procedures.

In this book the authors take the reader step by step through all of the practical techniques with which they must be familiar. At each stage they provide guidance on how to carry out these procedures efficiently and with the minimum distress to the patient, with advice on appropriate questions to ask the patient, and comments on how to interpret the patient’s responses. Also covered is the importance of explaining the diagnosis clearly, and how to communicate bad news.

There are many shared skills in the routine work of both doctor and nurse, and this concise pocket-sized handbook is intended as an aid to all those learning to deal with real patients for the first time.

Contents

1. An Introduction to History Taking and Examination
2. The Cardiovascular System
3. The Respiratory System
4. The Gastrointestinal System
5. The Locomotor System
6. The Nervous System
7. The Endocrine System
8. The Female Reproductive System
9. The Male Reproductive System
10. The Head and Neck & Common Surgical Conditions
11. Assessment of the Psychiatric Patient
12. Assessment of the Paediatric Patient

Index