The Expert Clinician

Have you noticed that more experienced clinicians manage the consultation differently from you? Quickly, efficiently and effortlessly they collect relevant information, reach an opinion and plan management. How do they do this? How can you become that good? Clearly a good knowledge of medicine and the basic sciences is important, but so is method. Instead of following the traditional history and examination format they tailor the consultation to the patient and the context. They know what questions to ask and which signs to look for. They learn, understand and interpret relevant information to suit the context, to respond to the patient, to meet the aims of the consultation. In The Expert Clinician, the skills needed and methods to use to be an expert clinician are explained and how these can be applied to the consultation described. The Expert Clinician will help you bridge the divide between the traditional “clerking” and the approach used by experienced clinicians. Experienced clinicians will be familiar with a lot of the content and will recognise the methods described. However, they have had to discover this for themselves. You won’t have to when you read The Expert Clinician.

Adam Widdison was born in Nottingham and went to school at Dartford and Gravesend, Kent, England. He studied medicine at Oxford University, taught Anatomy at Cambridge University, undertook research at University College, Los Angeles, and trained in hospitals at Plymouth, Oxford, Norwich, Exeter and Bristol before being appointed consultant surgeon at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in 1995. In addition to a medical degree, he has an MA, DM, FRCS, a Hunterian professorship and a PGCE. Working in one of the busiest acute teaching hospitals in England gave him a wealth of experience, both clinically and as a teacher, and provided the inspiration for this book.