Throughout our lives, story is the medium each of us uses to make sense of our environment and relationships. Stories provide meaning and context, enriching our experiences and equipping us with a framework to navigate our existence. This unique, practical book for healthcare trainees, practitioners and educators explores the ideas and practice of narrative and storytelling that lie at the very heart of clinical medicine and the patient ‘experience’ of care. It shows how story and narrative can be used effectively to help convey concepts such as prognosis and the effect of illness upon life, and to prepare patients and their relatives for difficult and painful news. Offering a particular insight into communication by and between healthcare professionals, and how it can be refocused and improved, this updated and expanded second edition remains an invaluable teaching aid for educators working in both small and large formats, and for under- and postgraduate students.

Throughout our lives, story is the medium each of us uses to make sense of our environment and relationships. Stories provide meaning and context, enriching our experiences and equipping us with a framework to navigate our existence. This unique, practical book for healthcare trainees, practitioners and educators explores the ideas and practice of narrative and storytelling that lie at the very heart of clinical medicine and the patient ‘experience’ of care. It shows how story and narrative can be used effectively to help convey concepts such as prognosis and the effect of illness upon life, and to prepare patients and their relatives for difficult and painful news. Offering a particular insight into communication by and between healthcare professionals, and how it can be refocused and improved, this updated and expanded second edition remains an invaluable teaching aid for educators working in both small and large formats, and for under- and postgraduate students.

Macleod's Clinical Diagnosis demonstrates how to apply the core clinical skills learned from the companion textbook Macleod's Clinical Examination to maximum advantage. Charting the course from routine work-up to diagnosis, this book presents a modern and realistic approach to clinical assessment and explains how to integrate information obtained from the history, examination, bedside tests and specialised investigations. The first section Principles of clinical assessment examines different approaches to diagnosis, reviews the fundamental elements necessary for accurate patient assessment, provides a helpful template for a 'routine workup' and describes how to adapt the assessment to fit the clinical context. The second core section of the book Assessment of common presenting problems contains a series of 'diagnostic guides' that lead the reader, step-by-step through the major presenting problems in medicine and surgery, explaining how to recognise red flag features, eliminate life-threatening conditons and generate a logical differential diagnosis. This book has been praised as an invaluable resource for senior medical students and junior doctors as they attempt to make the difficult transition from mastering basic clinical skills to assessing patients in the real world of clinical medicine. A unique book allowing a reader to apply the skills of clinical examination in the formulation of a differential diagnosis and placing a patient's symptoms in context. Takes a problem-based approach to diagnostic reasoning, reflecting both modern medical and current educational practices. Builds on the clinical skills outlined in the companion Macleod's Clinical Examination textbook. For this Second Edition the text has been expanded with five new topics covering nausea and vomiting; vaginal bleeding; red eye; urinary incontinence; and weight loss.