The New Consultation Developing Doctor-Patient Communication

This is a complete rewrite of the highly acclaimed book 'TheConsultation' published almost 20 years ago by the same authors. It is anessential aid for all doctors and their educators to increase the effectivenessof their consultations and to help to make them more patient centred. Itincludes the theoretical background as well as the practical help for bothconsulters and teachers.The consultation is 'the central act of medicine: the meeting between thepatient and the doctor. The first part of the book takes the reader from thecontext of the consultation in society and the medical profession, into theintimacy of the consulting room and delves into its processes. The reader isinvited to share the perspective of doctor and patient individually and toconsider what will lead to positive outcomes. The last chapter of the firstsection puts all these factors together and provides a coherent, evidence-baseddescription of the processes needed for an effective consultation for thepatient, the doctor and society.The second part of the book takes the reader into the practicalities of learningand teaching effective consultations. We start with a brief description of theevidence for effective teaching and outline the authors' experience of teachingin this way with over 1000 doctors. Realising that many doctors organise theirown self-directed learning we have included a chapter that enables an individualto develop their own consulting technique. We have offered help for teachers ofthe consultation in both the undergraduate and post graduate setting. Since ourlast book the consultation is assessed by a number of the royal medical collegesto measure competence and we include a chapter discussing the issues. The lastchapter discusses the difficulties that many doctors still have in conductingpatient centred consultations and make some offers for work in the future.