Talking with Patients: A Basic Clinical Skill (Oxford medical publications)

This book is a compact, practical introduction to talking with and listening to patients. It provides analysis of the interchange of information and focuses on the affective dimensions of the medical interview, the aspect of communication with doctors which patients most often criticize and find insensitive. The factors which can inhibit or facilitate communication are examined, and coverage of communication with particular categories of patients-the child, the adolescent, the aged, and the dying, as well as patients from other cultures are included. This succinct, coherent volume provides an important framework of knowledge which is often not presented in the medical curriculum.