10-Minute Clinical Assessment

Clinical assessment is at the heart of medicine. Health professionals working in busy clinical settings, such as general practitioners, nurse practitioners and hospital doctors on-call, often have to assess patients under considerable time constraints. This book teaches the reader how to gather clinical information effectively, accurately and safely even when time is at a premium. Using a focused and evidence-based approach, it provides step-by-step assessment strategies for common and important clinical scenarios, particularly those that require ‘lateral’and holistic thinking, such as falls in the elderly, weight loss, ‘tired all the time’and assessment of diabetic or homeless people.

This second edition of The 10-Minute Clinical Assessment is fully updated in line with the latest guidelines and includes brand new general chapters on focused clinical assessment, red flags, and useful consultation tools. It covers a wide range of common and important topics, including cardiovascular, respiratory, haematology, musculoskeletal, neurology, mental health, gynaecology, obstetrics, urology, ophthalmology and ear, nose and throat. This new edition also includes sectionson undifferentiated and miscellaneous presentations, on paediatrics and adolescent health; and on problems in older people. Each of the individual disease sections is uniformly structured to provide rapid reference, including:

• Key features of the history, including questions relevant to patientsand important for making a diagnosis
• Common patient ideas, concerns and expectations
• The ‘value’ of present or absent symptoms for diagnosis and prognosis
• What should be examined, and why
• A summary of ‘red flags’ – issues that must be assessed
• Important differential diagnoses and their clinical features
• Useful tips, tricks and hints for effective patient assessment

Written by an experienced medical educator and practicing GP, in consultation with a multidisciplinary team of medical students, GPs, PG trainees, hospital doctors and nurses, this title specifically covers the clinical skills assessment (CSA) part of the Membership of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) examination.

New to this edition is a refreshed approach to the methodology employed inclinical assessment, to reflect recent trends in the teaching of clinical assessment. This edition also includes the latest evidence-based recommendations (including the latest NICE guidelines) and recent developments in order to provide the reader with a concise yet comprehensive resource for clinical reference.