EDITED BY
Nicola Cooper, MBChB, FAcadMEd, FRCPE, FRACP
Consultant Physician and Honorary Clinical Associate Professor
Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Derby, UK
John Frain, MBChB, MSc, FRCGP, DGM, DCH, DRCOG, PGDipCard
Director of Clinical Skills
Division of Medical Sciences and Graduate Entry Medicine
University of Nottingham
Nottingham, UK
This edition first published 2018
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Names: Cooper, Nicola, editor. | Frain, John (John Patrick James), editor.
Title: ABC of clinical communication / edited by Nicola Cooper, John Frain.
Description: Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, [2018] | Series: ABC series | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2017023660 (print) | LCCN 2017024788 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119246978 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119247005 (epub) | ISBN 9781119246985 (pbk.)
Subjects: | MESH: Professional‐Patient Relations | Communication | Clinical Medicine
Classification: LCC R727.3 (ebook) | LCC R727.3 (print) | NLM W 62 | DDC 610.69/6–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017023660
Cover Design: Wiley
Cover Image: © Clarissa Leahy/Gettyimages
Good clinical communication is essential for safe patient care. Clinical communication occurs within the patient encounter, but also through information flow within and between clinical teams. Issues around communication account for the majority of complaints about patient care.
The last quarter of a century has seen the establishment of an evidence base for good communication skills and the teaching and assessment of it. We are now better placed to identify and to demonstrate the qualities required for effective communication with the range of patients and professionals encountered in clinical practice. Communication is a core part of curricula within medical schools. Students trained in the early days of these programmes are now practitioners and teachers themselves, meaning the practice and role‐modelling of these skills are gradually increasing.
This book is intended as a reference for healthcare students and practitioners, either as part of a communication skills course or for personal study. Issues around clinical communication relate to skills required within the consultation, for communication within and between teams, in medical records and during handover.
Clinical communication concerns not only establishing rapport with patients and ensuring patient satisfaction with the encounter on a human level – it also means actively listening to patients and understanding their experience and perspective on the anatomical and physiological changes that may constitute pathology and disease. Detailed gathering of hard clinical data reduces the risk of diagnostic error and leads to better treatment and management decisions.
Although this book inevitably reflects our own work in the UK’s National Health Service, we are pleased to have brought together a range of international authors, all of whom are recognised experts in their fields. It has been a pleasure to edit this book and in the process to understand better the development of our own communication with patients, students and colleagues. We hope you enjoy and learn from it.
Magdy Abdalla, MBCHB, FRCSI, DRCOG, FRCGP, MMedSci
GP Teaching Fellow, Division of Medical Sciences and Graduate Entry Medicine
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
Nivedita Aswani, MBChB, MRCPCH
Consultant Paediatrician, Lead for Paediatric Diabetes, Derbyshire Children's Hospital, Derby, UK
Phyllis Butow, BA (Hons), DipEd, MClinPsych, MPH, PhD
Psycho‐Oncology Cooperative Research Group (PoCoG) & Centre for Medical Psychology and Evidence‐based Decision‐making, School of Psychology
Surgical Outcomes Research Centre (SoURCE), Institute of Surgery, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Gillian B. Clack, PhD(Lond)
Former Honorary Senior Lecturer, Division of Medical Education, King’s College London, London, UK
Josephine Clayton, MBBS (Hons), PhD, FRACP, FAChPM
HammondCare Palliative and Supportive Care Service, Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich, Sydney;
Kolling Institute, Northern Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Nicola Cooper, MBChB, FAcadMEd, FRCPE, FRACP
Consultant Physician and Honorary Clinical Associate Professor, Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Derby, UK
Vanessa Cox, MBChB, MRCPCH
Consultant Paediatrician, Derbyshire Children’s Hospital, Derby, UK
Alison Cracknell, MBChB, FRCP, PGCert
Consultant Physician, Honorary Clinical Associate Professor and Patient Safety Lead, The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Leeds, UK
John Frain, MBChB, MSc, FRCGP, DGM, DCH, DRCOG, PGDipCard
Director of Clinical Skills, Division of Medical Sciences and Graduate Entry Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
Jonathan Silverman, BA, BM. BCh, FRCGP, FAcadMEd
President of the European Association for Communication in Healthcare, Honorary Visiting Senior Fellow, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Lee Smith, BA, PGDip, MA, MA, RMN
Mental Health Nurse Specialist, Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Derby, UK
Nigel D.C. Sturrock, BMSc, MBChB, MSc, MD, FRCP
Executive Medical Director, Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Derby, UK
Julia Surridge, MBBS, DRCOG, DCH, MRCPCH, PGCert (Med Ed)
Paediatric Emergency Medicine Consultant, Derbyshire Children’s Hospital, Derby, UK
Adam Walczak, BPsych (Hons), PhD
Youth Cancer Services & Clinical Trials Division, CanTeen Australia, Sydney, Australia
Andy Wearn, MBChB, MMedSc, MRCGP
Director, Clinical Skills Centre, Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand