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The best clinicians take into account the life challenges of their patients when planning their care, a process Drs. Weiner and Schwartz refer to as'contextualizing care.'Failures to contextualize care, when they results in care plans that seem appropriate from a narrowly clinical perspective but are nevertheless unlikely to achieve their intended aims represent'contextual errors.'Prescribing a medication a patient cannot afford when a less costly alternative is available would constitute such an error. Drawing on two decades of research including analysis of nearly 10,000 audio recorded medical encounters, the authors document an unmeasured dimension of quality: the extent to which clinicians attend to patient context, and its substantial implications for health care outcomes and costs. Listening for What Matters provides a comprehensive overview of research and quality improvement efforts to address the problem of contextual error. This second edition has been revamped and updated to include studies testing clinical decision support tools in the electronic medical record, medical student and resident trainee educational interventions, and an audio-recording based quality improvement program within the Department of Veterans Affairs. This book is a must-read for physicians, other health care professionals, policymakers and administrators, medical students, and medical educators.

Patients are increasingly encouraged to take an active role in managing their health and health care. New technologies, cultural shifts, trends in healthcare delivery, and policies have brought to the forefront the'work'patients, families, and other non-professionals perform in pursuit of health. Volume I provides a theoretical and methodological foundation for the emerging discipline of Patient Ergonomics – the science of patient work.The Patient Factor: Theories and Methods for Patient Ergonomics, Volume I defines Patient Ergonomics, explains its importance, and situates it in a broader historical and societal context. It reviews applicable theories and methods from human factors/ergonomics and related disciplines, across domains including consumer technology, patient-professional communication, self-care, and patient safety.The Patient Factor is ideal for academics working in health care and patient-centered research, their students, human factors practitioners working in healthcare organizations or at technology companies, frontline healthcare professionals, and leaders of healthcare delivery organizations.

Patients are increasingly encouraged to take an active role in managing their health and health care. New technologies, cultural shifts, trends in healthcare delivery, and policies have brought to the forefront the'work'patients, families, and other non-professionals perform in the pursuit of health. This volume closely examines notable application areas for the emerging discipline of Patient Ergonomics – the science of patient work.The Patient Factor: Applications of Patient Ergonomics, Volume II reviews the definition of Patient Ergonomics and discusses the application of Patient Ergonomics across contexts. It analyzes patient work performed in emergency departments, transitions of care, home and community settings, retail pharmacies, and online communities. It also examines applications to groups including veterans, pediatric patients, older adults, the underserved, and people engaged in health promotion.The Patient Factor is ideal for academics working in health care and patient-centered research, their students, human factors practitioners working in healthcare organizations or at technology companies, frontline healthcare professionals, and leaders of healthcare delivery organizations.

Of previous editions:'... breaks new ground in its readability … It is concise, wise, and firmly pragmatic'. British Medical Journal'Since it was first published in 1994, Peter Tate's The Doctor's Communication Handbook has been essential reading to improve GP registrars'communication skills'. Practical Diabetes InternationalThis bestselling title has established itself as the ultimate guide to patient communication for all doctors, whatever their experience and wherever they practice. Highly respected by many and acclaimed for its light, conversational tone, this completely updated and expanded eighth edition remains a key text for doctors at all levels and in all settings, particularly candidates sitting for the Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners. Key features: Unique and accessible approach to this vital and frequently poorly practiced aspect of medicine Addresses the change in practice where traditional doctor consultations are increasingly being done by other health professionals, including nurse practitioners and paramedics Reflects the dissolution of the primary/secondary care boundary, and the increasing importance of shared responsibility for patient communication in clinical and social care Covers the new types of consultation including telephone triage and virtual consultation and the associated risks and benefits Retains all the features praised in previous editions − brevity, readability and humour As patients become participants, doctors are increasingly adjusting to new roles and forms of communication − from orators and governors to confidants and interpreters. The Doctor's Communication Handbook continues to provide an invaluable'one stop shop'to help students, practicing doctors, nurses and other healthcare practitioners value and improve their skills in this area.

‘…a unique book, written by a unique GP. There is no-one better placed to pull together decades of learning and experience on how to achieve the greatest success in the general practice consultation. The relaxed pace of writing, the accessible examples, the clear narrative and the engaging anecdotes make this a resource that it is accessible and useful to all who seek to improve their clinical consulting skills.'Helen Stokes-Lampard, former Chair of the Royal College of General PractitionersThis brand-new book aims to help GPs establish ways of thinking, talking and behaving in the consultation that are most likely to lead to good outcomes. It describes a simple three-part approach to the consultation's essential task, which is to convert a patient's problem into a plan acceptable to both patient and doctor. It combines reader-friendly explanations, helpful illustrations and examples from everyday practice.Key features: Written by a respected GP, teacher, and author of the highly-regarded trilogy The Inner Consultation, The Inner Apprentice and The Inner Physician Gives GPs a framework for consulting that is easy to remember, comprehensive, adaptable, robust, exam-friendly and quickly becomes second nature Identifies and addresses key areas of anxiety for GP trainees and MRCGP candidates, including ‘How do I complete in 10 minutes?', ‘How do I deal with difficult patients?'and ‘What do I do when it all goes pear-shaped and I don't know what to do?'Gives advice and practical suggestions for how to make the difficult transition from theory to practice, from reading about the consultation to actually doing it better in real life Consulting in a Nutshell will help GPs at every career stage – from medical student to CSA candidate to experienced practitioner – to analyse, develop and grow their personal consulting style. Coming at a time of profound change in primary care, it aims to ensure that seeing patients and having good consultations becomes and remains a source of satisfaction and fulfilment.The author:Roger Neighbour is a retired GP, former Convenor of the Panel of MRCGP Examiners, and past President, Royal College of General Practitioners, UK.

This unique book draws upon a collection of essays and personal reflections by Dr Peter Tate, covering at least half a century of his experience of trying to understand, define and improve communication between doctors and patients. Adopting a light, conversational and often humorous tone, the book covers a broad range of situations encountered during the lead author's career as a general practitioner, his seminal research into understanding doctor-patient communication, and his subsequent role in both teaching and developing the internationally-recognised Royal College of General Practice's membership video examination. This book demonstrates that clinical experiences, both professional and personal, are fundamental to our perception of what is important and what matters most in medicine.Key features: Unique and personal account of the development of this vital but often overlooked aspect of medicine Engaging and light-hearted, yet academically rigorous Draws on experiences gathered during clinical practice, research and teaching From the authors of the popular The Doctor's Communication Handbook, now in its eighth edition In reading Bedside Matters doctors, and particularly general practitioners, will not only learn from the author's experiences, but will be encouraged to reflect on their own clinical and personal experiences, and to use these to better understand and improve their own communication techniques.The author:Peter Tate is a retired General Practitioner, UKWith editorial contributions from:Francesca Frame, a General Practitioner based in Cambridgeshire, UK

Research shows that the importance of patient-reported outcomes, improved decision support, and care coordination is growing rapidly as new payment models transform healthcare delivery. This has led to the use of new measures and communication techniques, including shared decision-making and motivational interviewing.Using patient-reported outcomes at the point of service helps providers identify what matters most to the patient in front of them now. Describing treatment options and deciphering a patient's preferences effectively is a process, which has been likened to arriving at a diagnosis. Providers make a medical diagnosis by discerning a patient's primary complaints, past history, exam findings, and test results. A preference diagnosis can be thought of similarly. Providers work with their patients to identify what matters most to them, discuss the risks and benefits of the available treatment options, and support the patient as needed through the decision-making process. Once informed of their options, patients frequently chose treatments that require modifying their habits. Motivational interviewing helps patients and providers understand what matters most now and design care plans that provide appropriate support. While many healthcare providers and leaders may be familiar with patient-reported outcomes from research articles, and have heard of shared decision-making and motivational interviewing, few have experience using them. Fewer still understand how each relates to the other. This book helps leaders and healthcare providers better understand how to use patient-reported data to their advantage at the point of service. The book provides the background for developing shared knowledge and shared language, along with extensive examples of dialogue between providers and patients. In addition, the book contains personal interviews of subject matter experts who have significant experience using these measures. The result is a comprehensive understanding of how these measures and techniques can help providers, organizations, and patients navigate this modern healthcare management opportunity.

Dieser Leitfaden für Kinder- und Jugendärzte bietet Techniken, Tipps und Tricks für eine gelungene Kommunikation mit Eltern und in typischen Gesprächssituationen im sensiblen Kontext der Kinder- und Jugendmedizin. Welche Kommunikationsmodelle im Alltag helfen, veranschaulicht der Kinder- und Jugendarzt Wolfgang Kölfen anhand zahlreicher Fallbeispiele und eingängiger Fotos und Schaubilder.Kurze Übungen und Fälle aus dem pädiatrischen Alltag ergänzen dieses Buch zu einem praktischen Ratgeber nicht nur für Pädiater, sondern auch für Ärzte aller Fachrichtungen, die ihren Umgang mit Patienten effektiver und zufriedenstellender gestalten wollen.

General Practice Today explores the GP consultation in the context of external'stressors'and'helpers'that doctors use to make best clinical decisions. Over the last 30 years there has been a move towards mandatory training on legal aspects, risk scores and guidance. Additionally, with widespread access to IT there has been a huge growth in the information doctors need to know and manage. Yet today's GP has never been more time-poor or under so much pressure. All these outside considerations can seem challenging and remote for the doctor sat with their patient; yet in today's reality they have never been more important. This book offers insight into the practical impact and importance of these external factors. It offers advice on everything from law, technology and time management to mental health issues, ethics, religion and culture, exploring how to determine which issues are relevant to each individual consultation.Packing each chapter with realistic examples, author Jane Wilcock draws on her own extensive experience to help GPs make considered, contextual decisions that enhance the health and well-being of their patients. This book is essential reading for any General Practitioner, allied health care practitioner or trainee preparing to practice in our complex modern world.

'Today, there exists a robust body of work connecting narrative theory and practice with medical theory, practice, teaching, and research. Taken together, what is particularly interesting about these works is that they portray narrative healthcare as both a philosophy of care and a set of skills -'John D Engel, Lura L Pethtel and Joseph Zarconi, in the Preface This inspiring collection of narrative portraits details the career paths of physicians and nurses who figure prominently in the realms of narrative and relationship-centered healthcare. Each narrative describes the healthcare practitioner's early decision process for choosing their career and follows with a trajectory of events and work situations that brought each person to their present position. They offer a unique view from both a personal and a professional perspective. The collection of narrative portraits provides students, residents, and practicing health professionals a window into the possibilities for constructing professional lives that are oriented to service in ways that are fulfilling, energizing, and creative. The editors have made an important contribution to advancing the practice of narrative and relationship-centered medicine. They invite you to listen for the truths of your own story as you hear the voices of colleagues speak from the pages in your hand. Reflecting on the ultimate concerns that move you will enable you to more fully inhabit your own life story and become more authentic and vital as you heal others. Mark L Savickas, in the Foreword

This is a practical guide to successfully achieving a fully computerised system in primary care. It shows how to source a primary care clinical system that does what you need it to do and how to use it effectively. The book is easy to read with numerous examples and copies of useful documents throughout. Helpful features include charts to map progress at a glance icons to point out www links details of additional resources for further information and highlights cautions and key points are highlighted. The author has drawn together ten years'practical experience working with over 200 practices and incorporates the best national and international expertise. This is an essential guide for GPs practice nurses managers and all members of the primary care team. For downloadable resources accompanying this book click here

This book examines the organizational consequences of the recent international preoccupation with managing patient safety in the clinic. Built on presuppositions about failsafe system-design, risk elimination, and human fallibility, the patient safety programme introduces new problems and safety threats in clinical practice by devaluing practical forms of reasoning and the trained safety dispositions of clinicians. Developing a pragmatic and more situated stance on patient safety, Pedersen offers an alternative vocabulary that refocuses attention towards the importance of conduct, habits and experience-based learning in delivering safe care. This innovative book will be of great interest to scholars and practitioners of organization and risk studies, health, science and technology studies and the wider social and medical sciences.

Guidelines are powerful instruments of assistance to clinicians capable of extending the clinical roles of nurses and pharmacists. Purchasers and managers perceive them as technological tools guaranteeing treatment quality. Guidelines also offer mechanisms by which doctors and other health care professionals can be made more accountable to their patients. But how can clinicians tell whether a guideline has authority and whether or not it should be followed? Does the law protect doctors who comply with guidelines? Are guideline developers liable for faulty advice? This timely book provides a comprehensive and accessible analysis of the many medical and legal issues arising from the current explosion of clinical guidelines. Featuring clear summaries of relevant UK US and Commonwealth case law it is vital reading for all doctors health care workers managers purchasers patients and lawyers.

The foundation of patient-centered care is the patient-professional relationship. By exploring both the disease and patients'unique experience of illness, healthcare professionals take into consideration their individual needs as well as their emotional and physical concerns. Using narratives to describe experiences of patients and professionals, this book reveals the four interactive components of the patient-centered clinical method: exploring health, disease and illness; understanding the whole person; finding common ground; and enhancing the patient-doctor relationship. The concluding chapters illustrate ways in which all four components interact with and complement each other and can be used in unison to the immeasurable benefit of both patient and professional. The stimulating narratives are all based on recent developments in the theoretical model of patient-centred clinical care. This wide-ranging, thought-provoking text is highly relevant to a wide range of healthcare professionals as well as medical educators and healthcare students. For physicians, narratives provide insight and illumination of what it truly means to be patient-centered. They also help clinicians to examine, in a reflective manner, what it means to be a healer. From the Introduction

This extraordinary and practical book examines neuro linguistic programming (NLP) - the knowledge and skills to detect and affect thinking patterns - and applies it to each phase of the medical consultation. It outlines the NLP tools most useful to physicians who wish to understand and utilise the dynamic structure underlying the processes used by excellent communicators. It explains how improving communication skills and developing new models of consultation to incorporate into daily practice not only helps healthcare professionals become better communicators, but reassures patients, alleviating suffering and promoting healing. This book provides many case examples and includes skill based exercises to ensure easy and effective learning. There are unique, fresh perspectives on challenging areas such as anger and aggression, dealing with complaints, breaking bad news, the heartsink patient, uncovering hidden depression and telephone consulting skills. It is relevant to all healthcare professionals, and of special interest to general practitioners, GP trainers, counsellors and medical students.

Advancing Relationship-Based Cultures explains and expands a fundamental and often overlooked truth in health care: It is the confluence of relational and clinical competence that advances relationship-based healing cultures. A relationship-based culture is one in which a critical mass of people provides care and service with relational competence. In these cultures, the skills that foster relational competence are actively developed, nurtured, practiced, reinforced, and evaluated. While countless thought leaders have championed the importance of improving relationships, this book provides a practical how-to for the creation and nurturance of healthy relationships in health care. Readers of this book will understand that a strategy that includes improving all relationships will improve all other measures as well. When you empower people, giving them the tools to take excellent care of themselves, one another, and the patients and families in their care, organizations thrive.

By the end of this book you are going to be part of an exclusive group. The skill-sets you are about to learn will help you become one of a select few who can, time and time again, help people make changes in any clinical encounter.A'Persuading and influencing are most effective as cooperative ventures that recognise the needs and wishes a person already has, but feels unable or disempowered to decide or act upon. Persuasion in Clinical Practice aims to improve outcomes for patients by helping them to change their own attitudes and behaviours more easily in pursuit of better health and well-being. Drawing on fields such as motivational interviewing, the Stages of Change model, positive psychology and neuro-lingusitic programming (NLP), the book provides skills and tactics to help clinicians avoid communicational roadblocks, find what is really important to patients, why they want it, and then empower them to make changes in key areas such as: • lifestyle adjustments • coming to terms with chronic or serious illness • learning coping strategies and behaviours • overcoming fear of change. Encompassing a five-step strategy for any change consultation, Persuasion in Clinical Practice is packed with information and approaches to enhance knowledge, skills, attitudes and understanding in influencing change. This book will be essential reading for family doctors and other health professionals supporting behavioural change in their patients.

Here is a selection of multiple choice questions and care studies designed for candidates for the Diploma of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (DRCOG). The 90 multiple choice questions cove all major areas of the syllabus and are accompanied by extended answers to help the revision process. The case studies are ideal preparation for the other sections of the examination as well as for general revision. This book will be suitable not only for the DRCOG (and other examinations such as the MRCOG) but also for anyone wanting to update and test their understanding of obstetrics and gynaecology.

The phrase'medical humanities'has a currency that is wider than any agreement as to what it means, though those engaged in the field usually know what they are attempting. This volume examines the idea of'symptom'as a route to understanding the structure of clinical practice. Actual symptoms are always experienced by real, actual individuals - however much those experiences are mediated by language, culture, expectation and the conventions of the clinical consultation. And this in turn is important because it reminds us that health, illness, well-being, suffering are first and foremost aspects of experience. This book asks questions - and offers answers - about the meaning of actual symptoms and of the concept of'symptom'as a prelude to a cumulative interdisciplinary understanding of illness as a source of human need, and clinical medicine as a human response to it.

Narrative medicine has developed an identity already. Clinicians of many disciplines are being summoned to a practice that recognizes patients by receiving their accounts of self. Starting from different positions, the four authors have converged in a strong and shared commitment to narrative health care. They conceptualize narrative health care practices within frameworks derived from the social sciences and psychology, and, to a lesser degree, phenomenology and autobiographical theory. They relate the development of narrative medicine to relationship-centered care, patient-centered care, and complex responsive process of relating theory, positing that narrative medicine can help clinicians to develop the skills required to practice relationship-centered care. The book details - with exercises, resource texts, and abundant scholarly apparatus - how these skills can be developed and strengthened. This work will change health care. Because of its scholarly rigor, its multi-voiced sources, and its highly practical features (lists, activities, key ideas and key references, primary texts written by health care professionals and patients), this work will be a guide in the field for those who practice medicine or nursing or social work. The book establishes that there is a field to be practised, a need to practise it, and a means to develop the wherewithal to do so.

La clinique fondée sur les valeurs est née du constat d'une insatisfaction fréquente des patients, du malaise des praticiens dans leur exercice quotidien, et de nombreux conflits survenant lors de soins devenus très techniques.'L'evidence-based medicine'ne peut plus suffire pour soigner correctement. Les valeurs, que ce soit celles du patient ou celles du médecin, entrent forcément en ligne de compte, et les négliger revient à mettre de côté des ressources qui peuvent pourtant se révéler très utiles. Cet ouvrage, rédigé de façon très vivante, s'organise autour de'récits de cas'accessibles sans prérequis spécialisé. De la médecine générale à la psychiatrie, en passant par la chirurgie ou les soins palliatifs, il s'y révèle une pratique possible des soins au plus proche de la singularité de chaque malade, exercée en s'appuyant sur les ressources de la personne soignée, de ses proches, et de tous les membres des équipes soignantes, aujourd'hui multidisciplinaires. Déjà une référence au Royaume-Uni et sur les cinq continents, La clinique fondée sur les valeurs s'adresse à un très large public, des médecins des diverses spécialités à tous les professionnels intervenant dans les domaines sanitaire et médico-social (psychologues, infirmiers, éducateurs...) mais aussi aux étudiants qui se destinent à ces professions et souhaitent fonder leur vocation sur le respect des valeurs de chacun.

This book is intended for all those who not only have to give bad news but who are also keen to give as much help and support as possible to partners and families - both immediately and during remission relapse terminal illness dying or grieving. Although it concentrates on the somewhat neglected interests of relatives much of it is very relevant to the care of patients. It is of use in a hospital environment and in primary care and readers including doctors nurses social workers and spiritual advisers will value it both when they are in training and perhaps especially in the years after qualification.

Skills for Communicating with Patients, Third Edition is one of two companion books on improving communication in medicine, which together provide a comprehensive approach to teaching and learning communication skills throughout all levels of medical education in both specialist and family medicine. Since their publication, the first edition of thi

Synchrony is the ability of a healthcare process to control the pace of the physician process and the pace of the patient process such that the physician and patient are ready for each other at the same time, without waste or delay. When a process achieves synchrony, the patient does not wait for the doctor, nor does the doctor wait for the patient. Dr. Dennis Han is an ophthalmologist specializing in diseases of the retina at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Froedtert Memorial Hospital; Aneesh Suneja is an engineer and lean consultant who worked with Dr. Han to transform his practice. With the help of Suneja, Han's patients experienced an 85% reduction in non-value added wait times, and a corresponding 97% “top box” rating on patient satisfaction surveys (“strongly agree to recommend this doctor's office to others”). Financially, his practice saw a 25% year-over-year increase in relative value units (RVU) production and a 41% increase in payments due to increased physician availability. If you are a physician, clinic manager, administrator, technician, or provider of health services in a clinic setting, you can use the guidelines described in this book to effect a transformation as well.'Thank you, doctor Dennis Han, MD, and co-author Aneesh Suneja, MBA, for this marvelous work that applies Lean principles in healthcare settings. The focus on physician medical clinics is a brave venture into this complex, hectic world that has traditionally been dominated by physicians with a predominant emphasis on patient volume, and subsequent billing volume, versus caring for their customers… This important work is essential for just about all existing physician clinics.'Dale Farris Healthcare quality improvement specialist with 25 years experience.'Lean principles have opened up more slots for patient care allowing better clinic and staff utilization, and have increased patient throughput while reducing employee overhead and burnout. There is a joy on the faces of the staff when they get to leave the office earlier than expected because lean principles have been deployed.'Jose Martinez, MD Practicing physician and beneficiary of the “Synchrony”'Physician office managers and their medical staffs would be the primary targets for this book. However, I also see it being applicable to the higher educational setting…[such as in colleges and institutions teaching healthcare improvement.]'Jim Bente Vice President, Planning and Institutional Effectiveness, College of duPage Adjunct Faculty, Carnegie Mellon University

Quality communication contributes to smoother running practices, better care and services, greater efficiencies, fewer unhealthy conflicts, more satisfied staff and patients, and an improved ability to meet the challenges of an evolving and increasingly complex health care environment - With packed curricula in most health care training institutions, and hectic schedules in practices and administrative offices, time for teaching vital communication and interpersonal skills is often at a premium. This book equips trainees with the skills needed to communicate effectively with patients, colleagues and the community, employing a'learning by doing'approach for effective and engaging learning. It is designed for practice leaders, hospital leaders and public health professionals helping health care professionals upgrade their skills, and especially for faculty members who teach students and residents. Featuring more than 100 exercises ideal for use in a variety of training situations, this book takes into consideration the often limited training time available for non-clinical topics. Exercises range in length from minutes to over an hour, whilst a selection grid allows trainers and educators to select the right exercises to cover topics in the available time.

'If...we feel better able to express and explore who we are, we may find that our health practice can also become a'self-practice'in which we can create healthier existences for ourselves too. At the heart of it all communication is the search for brighter light, for insight, even for enlightenment. Insight illuminates darkness, listening fosters understanding, and speaking helps dispel the seeds of despair. That is the virtuous cycle that lies at the heart of effective practice.'Justin Amery This extraordinary new series fills a void in practitioner development and well-being. The books take a reflective step back from the tick-box, target-driven and increasingly regulated world of 21st century health practice; and invite us to revisit what health and health practice actually are. Building carefully on the science and philosophy of health, each book addresses the messy, complex and often chaotic world of real-life health practice and offers an ancient but now almost revolutionary understanding for students and experienced practitioners alike: that health practice is a fundamentally creative and compassionate activity. The series as a whole helps practitioners to redefine and recreate their daily practice in ways that are healthier for both patients and practitioners. The books provide a welcome antidote to demoralisation and burn-out amongst practitioners, reversing cynicism and reviving our feeling of pride in, and our understanding of, health practice. By observing practice life through different lenses, they encourage the development of efficiency, effectiveness and, above all, satisfaction. The Integrated Practitioner: Co-creating in Health Practice is the second book in the series. It focuses on communication and considers the unusual but highly powerful relationship between physicians and patients within which'better health'is'co-created'. It offers new ideas on various ways of communicating in practice that inspire healthier and happier existences for both patients and practitioners. Brilliantly written, practitioners, students and trainees and GP trainers will find the enlightening, witty, conversational style a joy to read.

Das vorliegende Werk möchte das komplexe Arzthaftungsrecht anhand zahlreicher Fallbeispiele aus der Gutachterkommission für ärztliche Behandlungsfehler für den juristischen Laien anschaulich machen. Es informiert nicht nur über die Rechtslage nach Inkrafttreten des Patientenrechtegesetzes, sondern möchte auch zum Verständnis und zur Lösung emotional überhöhter Probleme beitragen und damit die Vertrauensgrundlage im Arzt-Patienten-Verhältnis stärken. Hierzu wendet sich der Autor in gesonderten Kapiteln direkt an den Patienten, der einen Behandlungsfehler vermutet und an den Arzt, der mit einem entsprechenden Vorwurf konfrontiert wird. Mit einem Vorwort von Professor Dr. med. Peter Wolfgang Gaidzik.

Highly Commended, BMA Medical Book Awards 2015 This bestselling guide has established itself as the ultimate guide to patient communication for all doctors, whatever their experience and wherever they practice. As patients become participants, doctors are increasingly adjusting to new roles and forms of communication - from orators and governors to confidants and interpreters. The Seventh Edition of The Doctor's Communication Handbook directly tackles the latest developments in an entirely new communication chapter. Highly respected by many and acclaimed for its light, conversational tone, this completely updated and expanded reference remains a key text for doctors at all levels and in all settings. It has proven invaluable to all medical students, particularly candidates sitting the Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners.'Previous generations doled out knowledge to patients in carefully titrated doses, but withheld enough information to retain power of influence. You cannot do that. In 2014-15, as soon as an individual or a member of their family experiences a major health event, someone in that circle will seek out information, usually by means of a few swipes of a smartphone or clicks of a mouse button. Within minutes they will have more information on the subject than you can possibly carry in your head. This is a huge change for doctors...'Peter Tate and Liz Tate in the Preface

This extraordinary compendium of religious traditions is invaluable to all healthcare providers. The user-friendly resource contains specific and detailed information on faith traditions vital for providing optimal spiritual care in a clinical setting. A series of inspirational introductory chapters promote the importance of spiritual well-being as

Patients'perspectives on their experiences of illness and treatment are increasingly valued by the medical profession as a source of information to enhance professional development, peer support and the quality of care provided. This book explores the development of an in-depth, relational and reflexive approach to narrative inquiry, drawing on counselling and arts-based approaches to researching accounts of illness. The significance of patient stories is explored through narrative research conversations with people whose personal accounts of a range of conditions provide powerful insights into the impact of illness on identity, life stories and the experience of patienthood. It offers suggestions for using narrative methods in medical education and practice to help professionals to both attend to patients'narratives and reflect on their own stories. Developing a Narrative Approach to Healthcare Research will be of interest to educators, practitioners, students and researchers in healthcare and the social sciences.'I will recommend this book to my students; I hope other healthcare professionals will do the same and that some, like me, will go on to explore how narrative and story can be harnessed to both explore experience and to teach within healthcare.'- from the Foreword by Karen Forbes'I would recommend this book to everybody who is involved in caring for people who suffer serious illness - whether they are professionals, family or friends. I also recommend it to social scientists and health professionals who want to conduct research in ways that capture the richness of peoples'lived experience.'- Kim Etherington, Professor of Narrative and Life Story Research, University of Bristol, UK.

As practitioners, it is easy to fall into the trap of exaggerated self-importance as we complete our education and move into the world of the professional. At that moment, the aura of being something special is there for the taking. We have worked hard, accomplished a major objective in life goals, attained the cultural level where respect has been secured with the potential to earn income such that we should never have to want for anything of a practical nature. Each of us during our training and schooling has striven to excel to demonstrate superior ability as we competed against other students for recognition of our accomplishments and our abilities. Yet, once we achieve the goal of becoming the professional that we aspire to be, we must step back and reflect on what we have and who we are. A successful practitioner is one who realizes that respect is a two-way street.

In this volume, Hugo Letiche tackles the all-important question, is there “care” in healthcare? If, as Klaus Krippendorff(2006) argues, “meaning is a structured space, a network of expected senses, a set of possibilities…[that] emerges in the use of language,” then within the healthcare systems of today, the meaning of “care” has been defined to be the eradication of a problem. We must recognize that patients do not wish to regarded merely as a problem requiring eradication. Letiche is opposed to the very idea that complexity reduction can address the humanity of each individual healthcare situation. He argues that, through narratives and through complexity based social theory, the complexity of each individual situation must be transcended through mindful listening and engaged dialogue. Letiche suggests that in the absence of such mindfulness, the lack of time for true listening, and the inability of providers and systems to allow for patients and family to engage in dialogue lies both the roots of the problem and the potential for its solution. If complexity theory has a role in the analysis understanding and betterment of social systems, then approaches such as the one Letiche undertakes herein will become essential tools of the trade.

In'Role Play and Clinical Communication', John Skelton critically considers the practice and benefits of this mainstream teaching method. His wide-ranging approach reflects on the recent developments within medical education, incorporating the medical humanities, the nature of language and communication, and the rules of human behaviour. You will find Skelton's light-hearted and open-minded attitude to communication unquestionably illuminating.

Previous ed. has subtitle: Defining, measuring, and improving the experience of care.

This guide for practice managers, in a question-and-answer format, explains accounting procedures and describes GMS, health authority and other sources of income. The book covers payroll, pension, personnel and complaints matters and advises on optimizing income for the practice.

The capacity of professional medicine to resist change - and also concordance - is impressive, but perplexing. It is one of the issues I seek to address in this book. I suggest that a preoccupation with trying to change the relationship between the professional-patient dyad has deflected attention from the extent to which such relations are embedded in, and constrained by, wider administrative and organisational structures, especially as these relate to the operation of professional hierarchies and interprofessional deference and allegiances. Barriers to change also result from the inertia of a system which has evolved a highly stylised etiquette as an adaptive mechanism to contain the difficulties and tensions intrinsic to the medical consultation. Its therapeutic purpose and potential are often subordinate to the goal of achieving success as a social encounter. The principles of concordance are deeply challenging to traditional professional roles and status. However, medicine has always displayed an ability to block change through tactics of appropriation and incorporation. Professionals have often shown particular difficulty giving up their monopoly of'expertise'and in acknowledging the legitimacy of the patient perspective. Although the term'concordance'has become quite widely used, its meaning is usually subverted by its employment as a synonym for'compliance', albeit'informed'compliance. A slightly more sophisticated version values professional elicitation of the patient perspective in order to more accurately tailor information as a means of overcoming the unhelpful m/sconceptions that impede compliance. The original emphasis on the consultation as a negotiated exchange, in which the professional has something of value to learn from the patient, has largely been lost. The rhetoric of modernity and change provides an effective mask for inertia and conservatism. Preface.

This book provides an important contribution to the new and growing field of'narrative-based medicine'. It specifically addresses the largest area of medical activity primary care. It provides both a theoretical framework and practical skills for dealing with individual consultations family work clinical supervision and teamwork and offers a comprehensive approach to the whole range of work in primary care. Using a wide range of clinical examples it shows how professionals in primary care can help clarify patients'existing stories and elucidate new stories. It can be used as a training resource and includes exercises and summaries of key points to consider. It is based on and describes an established evaluated training method and is of immediate and significant practical use to readers. It is essential reading for general practitioners practice nurses and others in the primary care team psychologists family therapists counsellors and other professionals attached to primary care. GP trainers tutors and course organisers will find it a valuable educational tool. Professionals elsewhere in primary care such as pharmacists dentists and optometrists and academics in medical sociology and medical anthropology will also find it very useful.

This important new study explores how American health care evolved in the 1990s, as well as the changes in public support and policy. Birenbaum examines where the interests of consumers and professionals have dovetailed and where they differ. He considers the health care system's future and suggested ways the system must be adjusted to provide better and wider coverage at reasonable costs. This volume is essential reading for scholars, students, and professionals in the medical field, as well as general readers concerned with health care issues.The 90s saw the country moving toward a realization that health care had become unaffordable—or an enormous financial burden for people with otherwise adequate incomes. Health care providers and consumers alike worried that the problem was becoming uncontrollable. Doctors saw their autonomy and control eroded, employers saw their costs rising significantly, the costs began shifting to employees, and alternative approaches to cost containment were explored.

Series Editors: Moira Stewart, Judith Belle Brown and Thomas R Freeman The application of the patient-centered clinical method has received international recognition. This book introduces and fully examines the patient-centered clinical method and illustrates how it can be applied in primary care. It presents case examples of the many problems encountered in patient-doctor interactions and provides ideas for dealing with these more effectively. It covers a wide range of topics and issues including palliative care, abuse, dying patients, ethical challenges and the role of self-awareness. Many narratives originate from patients'and family members'experiences, providing perspectives of great power and value. The Patient-Centered Care series is of great value to all health professionals, teachers and students in primary care.

How is modern medicine failing? Why is a more human approach required? This book challenges the dogma of modern technological medicine that ignores both the therapeutic effect of the doctors and the self-healing powers of the patient. It reviews the vast weight of evidence on the effectiveness of this ‘human effect', and uses the evidence to describe how to use the human effect in everyday practice. This book is about a vision. A vision that practitioners and patients will recognise and regain their therapeutic potential. It provides a shift in perspective on what doctors can achieve. Thoroughly referenced, it is vital for general practitioners, and also very relevant to all doctors, nurses, health managers, policy makers and indeed patients. ‘Pendulums swing in most fields of life, and medicine and general practice are no exceptions. At the mid-point of the twentieth century the human side of medicine was well understood and implicitly accepted by most working practitioners. As the century progressed, the personal aspects came second (but now) the pendulum of thought has started to swing back again towards the personal.