Clinical Communication Skills

This is a book about patient care. It emphasizes the importance of good communications as an implicit and necessary component of care in clinical practice, and advocates a mutually negotiated and open style of communication. Focusing on the needs of both adults and children, this book contains specific recommendations for communication approaches relating to questioning styles, giving information, handling difficult questions, and breaking bad news. Theoretical issues are also addressed and many clinical situations (such as pain, cancer and terminal illness) are included for illustration purposes.

It is written for doctors, nurses and other clinical practitioners who may want to further develop their communication skills, and is particularly suitable for medical and nursing students. It will also be of use to consumers of health services who are increasingly coming to expect more considerate communications in health care.

Richard Fielding, a clinical psychologist, is currently Head of Behavioural Sciences in the Department of Community Medicine of the University of Hong Kong.