Elizabeth Carr, The University of St Andrews

This is a great little book. It’s well laid out and very easy to find exactly what you are looking for. The examples are written in plain English, which is very useful as it can sometimes be difficult to switch off the medical terminology when talking to patients. The first chapter covers the basics of doctor-patient interactions and medical law. The legal guidance is succinct but detailed. The book manages to incorporate all the relevant legal information you need to know into a few pages, whilst still being readable. It also outlines where the Scottish law is different to English law, which is useful if you’re at a Scottish medical school! The second chapter includes guidance on patient confidentiality as well as advice on dealing with a variety of different patient groups/difficult situations. This is useful for medical students who may not yet have had exposure to such circumstances. It gives good advice as to how to manage such situations. The third chapter covers general history taking as well as history taking for the different systems. This includes a few pages on paediatric history taking, which is useful as often paediatrics is overlooked. The rest of the chapters cover how to explain diseases, drugs, devices, procedures, and operations to patients. Each chapter starts with a generic explanation e.g. how to explain any medication. This provides a great framework to use with patients. The book then gives examples of a range of diseases, drugs, procedures etc. that are commonly explained to patients. The examples are well written, and cover all the areas you should include in any explanation. Using this book will get you into good habits of covering all the relevant areas each time you talk to patients. The last chapter contains a few OSCE scenarios which are useful to practice. The book is small and ‘pocket-sized’ (depending on how big your pockets are), and so is handy to have with you on an attachment/ward.

Posted 16th Mar 2011

Amritha Ajith, University of Durham, Queens Campus, Stockton, Phase I Medicine

It's quite a small book so it fits into all of my bags and I take it with me everywhere- I read it on the bus, at the gym and while cooking. It's very readable. I find I lose track of time looking through it. The actual content will not be as detailed as your lecture notes but for a 'made easy' book, it's good. It's useful for revision once you've learned your lecture notes, since it's like a summary book of everything you'll probably learn in clinical skills lectures. It's also a lot easier to read than lecture notes- complete sentences! I thought that this would be very useful for OSCEs and there is a section at the back with OSCE scenarios but they are not as detailed as I expected. It's more ike bullet points referring you to a section in the book. I haven't taken my OSCEs yet so I can't say how helpful the guidance was. However, it was helpful to see what type of scenarios to expect, but I think I could have found out by looking on the internet anyway. I also find it useful to read this book before any GP or Hospital visits or clinical skills practice. I am only in my first year and haven't had much clinical contact yet so I like using this book, but many of my friends have done fine without this book. By your actual clinical years, you will have practiced so much that you don't need any stimulus material anyway, but if you have money to spare, you could buy this book.

Posted 22nd Feb 2011

Pauline Law, University of Dundee

This new book in the ‘Made Easy’ range is an absolute must for the student newly talking to patients on wards and in clinics. It manages to fill a gap in the Communication skills market by providing the student with easy to use sections on history taking and practical suggestions on how to phrase sentences, and deal with specific scenarios. I particularly liked the sections on how to explain diseases and procedures. This will equip the student to handle most communication skill OSCE stations as well as gain confidence with talking to real patients. The legal guidance on consent and capacity is good and does not get bogged down in legal speak and highlights differences with the law between England and Scotland. As a pocket sized book, I found it easy to read it on the bus in bite sized chunks!

Posted 18th Mar 2010

Latifa Patel, University of Liverpool

I give this book a buyer rating of 3/5 (Buy it… but only if you have found some money you didn’t know you had) for the older years and 4/5 (Buy it later… when the loan comes in) for the younger years. Having read this book cover to cover with a fine needle I have to say it is different to what I expected from the title. There is no doubt in my mind that this book is a useful little tool and that it is worth a good read. However, it is more suited for the younger years; for those who have understandably not had enough patient contact to feel confident in their communication skills. It attempts to teach you skills which I thought could only be gained through experience. For me there is no substitution for clinical experience and you are what you put in however if for some reason you haven’t put the time in or better still if you want to boost your confidence on the wards in you’re pre-clinical years then you might have just stumbled across a gem. Looking inside, this book cover all the usual; taking histories, breaking bad news, taking informed consent but then it does something I haven’t seen before, it covers in good detail the topic of HIV (maybe as it is a good example of a difficult situation). It also goes into detail on how to explain 13 of the most common diseases to patients, 10 of the most common medications, 6 devices, 10 procedures and 4 operations. To top it off it describes OSCE scenarios. Personally however, I think the OSCE scenarios lack clear guidance. Not ideal for last minute revision. Don’t depend too heavily on this book for the Law Sections – as it only touches the tip of the iceberg on most topics. Chapter 2 is definitely worth a read if you haven’t really had any interesting situations with patients and you want to face a challenge... Enjoy, Latifa (",)

Posted 18th Mar 2010