This book has established itself as a key text for all doctors, whatever their experience and wherever they practice. 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.

* Some early truths to remember
* How Doctors talk to Patients and why
* Different types of patient
* The patient’s learning circle
* The Doctor’s learning circle
* What you need to achieve in a consultation
* Ways of looking at the consultation
* The Magic Move?
* Useful Strategies and Skills
* Wider communication and ethical issues
* The essence of good doctoring
* Special situations and patients
* Summary
* Reading list
*The Ice Man Cometh

Key reviews of previous editions:

‘A must for every doctor’ FAMILY PRACTICE

‘Cheerfully illustrated and readable’ BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL

‘An excellent blend of theory and practice which should be read by every doctor’ CLINICIAN IN MANAGEMENT