The Doctor's Communication Handbook

This book has established itself as a key text for all doctors, whatever their experience and wherever they practise. The role of doctors is changing: where doctors were once seen as a repository of knowledge and experience, the Internet now gives many patients immediate access to a vast amount of detailed information - more than any doctor could expect to hold in their head. As patients become participants, doctors are increasingly adjusting to new roles and forms of communication - from tellers and controllers to listeners, sharers and interpreters. This new edition of The Doctor's Communication Handbook takes these latest developments into account, with an entirely new chapter on the essentials of good doctoring.

Conversational in tone and spiced as ever with lighthearted but informative cartoons, it remains a key text for doctors at all levels and in all settings. It will be of particular value to candidates sitting the new Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners (nMRCGP) examination, particularly the Clinical Skills Examination (CSE), and to undergraduate medical students.

About The Author:

Peter Tate qualified as a doctor at the University of Newcastle in 1968. After spells as a P & O Surgeon and as a trainee in Kentish Town, he worked as a family doctor for 30 years. He was a GP trainer for 25 years, and an MRCGP examiner from 1981. He was responsible for the introduction of the video module in 1996, and retired as covenor of the panel of examiners in March 2006. He is the sole author of The Doctor's Communication Handbook, which is now in its sixth edition. He is also the author of The Other Side of Medicine, a collection of essays and shor stories. He was a co-author of The Consultation and The New Consultation (both published by Oxford University Press), and has lecured widely on communication issues. Peter was awarded the MBE in 2008. He is now semi-retired and livers in Corfe Castle.

Table of Contents

• Some early truths to remember
• How doctors talk to patients and why
• Different types of patient
• The patient's learning circle
• How you feel is an important as what you know
• What you need to achieve in a consulation
• Ways of looking at the consultation
• The magic move?
• Useful strategies and skills
• Wider communication and ethical issues
• The essence of good doctoring : a personal interlude
• Special situations and patients
• Summary
• Appendix 1 Suggested reading
• Appendix 2 The ICE man cometh