Clinical Consultation Skills in Medicine

This book follows the revised format of the Practical Assessment Clinical Examination Skills (PACES) exam conducted by the Royal College of Physicians in the UK, where ‘clinical consultation skills’ will be tested twice in two separate stations. Thus, coming closest to what doctors do in real life: obtain a structured history, perform a focussed examination and explain the problem to the patient in lay terms. This book takes readers through a rational approach to 63 common presenting symptoms or laboratory abnormalities in medicine. It is aimed at improving the clinical consultation skills of young doctors and preparing them for the new format of MRCP PACES. Readers will learn:

1. The approaches to common presenting symptoms and blood test abnormalities.

2. What questions to ask the patient and why.

3. What to check when they examine the patient.

4. What to tell the patient and how to convey this information in lay terms without jargon.

5. How to investigate the problem, how to manage and when to refer to a specialist.

Key Features

• This book follows a narrative style with each case being discussed in a story-like manner, helping readers understand the process of narrowing the differential diagnosis, just like solving a crime!

• It includes a ‘What to tell the patient’ section, where the main points to convey to the patient are highlighted and fully dialogued to help readers understand how complex medical jargon should be conveyed in layperson's terms.

• It simplifies several complex and difficult-to-understand topics like haematological malignancies, thrombotic microangiopathy, glomerulonephritis, systemic vasculitis and eosinophilia.