Description
Book SynopsisClinical communication underpins safe patient care. The effective health professional sees illness through the patient's eyes and understands what matters most to him or her. Effectiveness means gathering hard clinical data about the physical changes affecting the patient, understanding why the patient is concerned, conveying this to other health care professionals and involving the patient at every stage of management decisions. The evidence for good clinical communication is well established, although there are challenges. While listening is the basis of sound diagnosis and clinical reasoning, its absence affects patient outcomes particularly when patients are not permitted to make their concerns known or when there are gaps in information flow or communication between the professionals caring for them. The ABC of Clinical Communication considers the evidence pertinent to individual encounters between patients and their health professionals, how to achieve efficient flow of inf
Table of ContentsPreface, vii
Contributors, ix
1 Why Clinical Communication Matters, 1
John Frain
2 The Consultation, 7
Jonathan Silverman
3 Communication and Personality Type, 13
Gillian B. Clack
4 Shared Decision-Making, 19
John Frain and Andy Wearn
5 Communication in Clinical Teams, 29
Alison Cracknell and Nicola Cooper
6 Communication in Medical Records, 35
Nigel D.C. Sturrock
7 Advanced Communication for Specific Situations, 41
Nivedita Aswani, Vanessa Cox and Julia Surridge
8 Communication and Mental Health, 49
Lee Smith
9 Communication at the End of Life, 55
Adam Walczak, Phyllis Butow and Josephine Clayton
10 Teaching Clinical Communication, 61
John Frain and Magdy Abdalla
Recommended Books, Articles and Websites, 69
Index, 71
