Oxford Professional Practice – serie

Quality of care is an essential outcome in modern healthcare, and improving this care is an integral part of the daily work of all healthcare professionals.The Handbook of Quality Improvement in Healthcare systematically covers the most modern theories and methods of improvement and implementation science in a practical and easy to follow format. It focusses on key challenges in healthcare, such as developing safe person-centred care, ensuring equity of care, meeting the challenge of climate change, and ensuring that care is safe, effective, timely, and delivered efficiently.By using helpful case studies throughout, and providing ethical, psychological, and practical advice on quality of care, this pocket-sized handbook is the ideal guide to all in healthcare today.

Every day, doctors are faced with the challenge of keeping the people they treat safe and free from harm. Patient safety is a relatively new field of study, but the field is expanding and there is now better understanding of what is needed to measure and achieve safety for patients. The Handbook of Patient Safety will empower doctors, nurses and other professionals to be able to develop safe clinical processes that allow proactive management and minimisation of risk, so that people are not harmed when they receive clinical care. It gives the rationale for patient safety, the theories behind the science of patient safety and then the practical methods that frontline staff can use on a daily basis to decrease harm.Pocket sized and practical, this handbook is the ideal guide to support frontline staff and trainees, as well as all allied professionals in the name of patient safety. It reflects the World Health Organization's Patient Safety Curriculum and is written by international experts in their field who have specialist interests and direct expertise in dealing with patient safety issues. This book will demystify what is often seen as a complex topic, helping doctors understand the methods needed to provide safe care.

Development of professional skills is central to good medical practice and is recognized as a priority by the NHS, the Academy of Royal Colleges, and General Medical Council. The Oxford Professional Practice Handbooks cover key areas which underpin clinical medicine. As practical, quick reference guides they are closely aligned to the Oxford Medical Handbooks with the familiar, concise and accessible format. Aimed at medical trainees, they also serve as useful quick reference guides for all clinicians in managerial, leadership, and teaching or development roles.Each title is written by specialists with input from trainees and students to ensure the content is practical and relevant to the day-to-day needs of healthcare professionals.

The Handbook of Clinical Critical Thinking in Clinical Medicine provides a clear, practical introduction to critical thinking in clinical diagnosis, offering healthcare professionals a concise framework for understanding how they make decisions, where those decisions can go wrong, and how to improve them. Despite growing recognition of its importance, critical thinking remains under-taught in medicine, leaving many clinicians without an explicit model for recognizing cognitive errors or enhancing diagnostic safety. With diagnostic error representing the greatest threat to patient safety, the need for accessible guidance on thinking processes has never been more urgent.Designed for busy readers across all healthcare roles - from paramedics and nurses to advanced practitioners and physicians-the book distills essential concepts into brief, synoptic chapters supported by real examples from acute and emergency care. It guides readers through the scope of diagnostic error, the nature of critical thinking, dual process theory, common cognitive biases, high-risk situations, and practical strategies to strengthen clinical reasoning. Practitioners can build a workable understanding that they can return to repeatedly, deepening their skills through reflection and the book's extensive signposting to further resources.