Clinical Communication Skills in Medicine

Do you know what to tell a patient with newly diagnosed cancer who asks how long he has left to live? This book contains forty-five scenarios in the format of the Practical Assessment of Clinical Examination Skills (PACES) exam. For medical students, trainees in internal medicine and general practice at all levels.

Dr. Ernest Suresh is currently the head of medicine at Ng Teng Fong General Hospital in Singapore. Over the last three decades, he has worked in three different countries with contrasting healthcare systems and cultures. He has been teaching MRCP candidates for over two decades and received more than a dozen teaching excellence awards in the last ten years alone. He has regularly published educational review articles on a wide range of topics in peer-reviewed internal medicine journals and written an acute medicine handbook to guide the junior doctors in his hospital. His previous book, Clinical Consultation Skills in Medicine: A Primer for MRCP PACES, takes readers through a simple, clear and rational approach to 63 common presenting symptoms or laboratory abnormalities in medicine. He believes that all doctors, regardless of their speciality, should practice holistically, and learn to treat the person that has the illness and not just the illness the person has. He considers himself an 'old-fashioned clinician' and pays a lot of attention to bedside clinical skills and communication, the essential traits that the Royal College expects PACES candidates to possess.

Contents Preface Conveying abnormal test results 1. The 51-Year-Old Woman with a Possible Brain Tumour 2. The 22-Year-Old Woman with New Diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes 3. The 28-Year-Old Woman with a Positive HIV Test Result 4. The 66-Year-Old Man with Advanced Pancreatic Cancer 5. The 74-Year-Old Man with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia 6. The 27-Year-Old Woman with Possible Coeliac Disease 7. The 30-Year-Old Woman with Tuberculosis 8. The 34-Year-Old Man with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Counselling on disease management 9. The 22-Year-Old Man with Recurrent Episodes of Fainting 10. Case 10 The 24-Year-Old Pregnant Woman with Suspected Pulmonary 11. Case 11 The 37-Year-Old Woman with Functional Dyspepsia 12. Case 12 The 46-Year-Old Man with Poorly Controlled Diabetes Mellitus 13. Case 13 The 78-Year-Old Woman with Hyponatremia 14. Case 14 The 26-Year-Old Woman who has had an Anaphylactic Reaction 15. Case 14 The 26-Year-Old Woman who has had an Anaphylactic Reaction Capacity, consent and confidentiality 16. Case 16 The 28-Year-Old Woman with Possible Lupus Nephritis 17. Case 17 The 19-year-old Girl whose Father Objects to a Lumbar Puncture 18. Case 18 The 66-Year-Old Man who Does Not Wish to Start Dialysis 19. Case 19 The 33-Year-Old Man who is Refusing the HIV Test 20. Case 20 The 52-Year-Old Man who wants to get Discharged Against Medical Advice Challenging patients and relatives 21. Case 21 The 77-Year-Old Man whose Daughter asks you Not to Reveal the Diagnosis of Cancer to him 22. Case 22 The 37-Year-Old Man with Gonorrhoea who asks you Not to Tell his Wife about his Diagnosis 23. Case 23 The 26-Year-Old Man who is asking to be tested for Huntington's disease 24. Case 24 The 46-Year-Old Man who is Not Compliant with his Anti-Hypertensive Medication 25. Case 25 The 65-Year-Old Woman Who Wants to Try Herbal Treatment for her Lymphoma 26. Case 26 The 24-Year-Old Man with Difficult Asthma 27. Case 27 The 63-Year-Old Woman whose Husband asks you Not to Discharge Her 28. Case 28 The 42-Year-Old Man with Non-Specific Back Pain who Demands a Scan When things go wrong 29. Case 29 The 47-Year-Old Man who is Demanding Strong Opioids for his Chronic Back Pain 30. Case 30 The 43-Year-Old Woman with No Diagnosis despite Extensive Evaluation 31. Case 31 The 66-Year-Old Man whose Sister Does Not Agree with your Diagnosis 32. Case 32 The 68-Year-Old Man whose Stroke was not Diagnosed in Time 33. Case 33 The 74-Year-Old Woman who has Suffered Harm because of a Medication Error 34. Case 34 The 78-Year-Old Man who Fell Off His Bed in the Ward End-of-life issues 35. Case 35 The 73-Year-Old Man who was Exposed to COVID in Hospital 36. Case 36 The 27-Year-Old Woman with a Severe Allergic Reaction to Sulfasalazine 37. Case 37 The 69-Year-Old Woman whose Cord Compression was not Diagnosed in Time 38. Case 38 The 69-Year-Old Woman who wants to Make a Living Will 39. Case 39 The 82-Year-Old Woman for whom the Medical Team feels that CPR Should Not be Attempted 40. Case 40 The 68-Year-Old Man with Motor Neurone Disease who needs Artificial Feeding 41. Case 41 The 70-Year-Old Man with Acute Exacerbation of COPD 42. Case 42 The 81-Year-Old Man who is Terminally Ill 43. Case 43 The 45-Year-Old Man with Severe Brain Haemorrhage 44. Case 44 The 59-Year-Old Man who has just Died from Myocardial Infarction 45. Case 45 The 53-Year-Old Woman whose Death is Unexplained