Product Description

Your one-stop-shop for final examination, the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Examination and Practical Skills is the first truly comprehensive pocket guide to clinical examination and practical skills for medical students and junior doctors. Providing clear and user-friendly guidance on all aspects of history taking, physical examination, common practical procedures, data interpretation and communication skills, it gives realistic advice on coping with common situations. In line with current teaching methods, the book takes a systems-based approach to medicine. Each system chapter follows a structured format covering applied anatomy, history, examination, and the presentation of common and important disorders. The procedures section includes approximately forty practical procedures that the final year medical student and senior nurse are expected to perform, from hand-washing through cardiopulmonary resuscitation to inserting chest drains. The theory, practice and complications are outlined for each. The final section on data interpretation covers the basics of chest x-rays, abdominal x-rays, ECGs, lung function tests and several other areas that the junior doctor is expected to carry out in their early years of training. Aimed at medical students throughout their course and student nurses throughout their clinical years, its clear presentation and layout combined with comprehensive clinical detail make this book an ideal guide both for quick reference whilst on the wards, or for more detailed study at the desk. It will also prove useful to junior doctors and nurse practitioners as a primer before going out onto wards, or into a primary care setting.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34242 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 704 pages

Review
The simple organization of the organ systems, the pertinent historical cures a practitioner should be looking for, the completeness of the description of the physical findings, supported by the excellent graphics, makes this one of the best texts on physical examination available...there is much to be learned by those at all levels of training from this well-organized, well-written book. (Doody's Notes )

This new book, which is part of the popular Oxford Handbook Series, is a must-have for final year students and newly qualified foundation doctors. ... The use of colour illustrations showing the clinical signs strengthens the book as a core text for students. ... I have yet to read a book like this that encompasses clinical skills and practical skills. (British Journal of Hospital Medicine, Vol 68, No 10, )

About the Author
Dr James Thomas studied medicine in Southampton where he also acquired a BSc in Biomedical Sciences. After completing his house-jobs there, he moved to Leeds and has just completed a medical rotation. James has always had a keen interest in medical education and intends to make his career in Respiratory Medicine.

Customer Reviews

Concise, thorough and quirky
This book is an excellent addition to the ever-popular Oxford Handbook series. It has all the usual stuff that you'd expect in a clinical examination book, but it also includes detailed coverage of many essential practical procedures (e.g. ABG) and has good sections on psychiatry and paeds. Medical ethics even make a brief appearance. In addition, there is a large data interpretation chapter which covers all the essentials such as interpretation of the ECG and chest X-ray. The style is crisp and to the point with a distinctive, sometimes quirky but erudite tone that I find enjoyable to read - and the text is peppered with interesting facts and historical curiosities. For instance, did you know that cat allergy is caused by one of the proteins in feline saliva (their fur is covered in it through licking) or that Abraham Lincoln may have had Marfan's syndrome (his slightly blurred face in photographs is probably a reflection of head nodding due to aortic regurgitation - De Musset's sign!). Best of all, despite being the only handbook in full colour, it only costs about twenty quid and it just about fits in your pocket. Five stars!

I wish I'd had this for finals!
This is a great addition to the Handbooks range, with plenty of useful, detailed descriptions of the sorts of things seniors just assume you know. While revising for my own medical finals I clearly remember becoming obsessive about finding out exactly how to do things like demonstrate Kernig's sign - I could only find very brief explanations which did nothing to allay my anxieties. This book not only describes such things in detail, it also provides photos to show you how to do them. The book covers the history and examination of the systems (including, again, explicit details where other books simply tell you to (eg) "examine the lymph nodes") and includes the lot - paeds, obstetrics and psychiatry as well as the usual stuff. There is a big section with instructions on how to do everything from taking a BP to placing a central line and a section on data interpretation including the basics of ECGs and CXRs. A really useful book for medical students and recent (or not so recent!) graduates.

One of the finest clinical examination text books I own
This is an absolutly fantastic text, and one I would recommend to all clinical medical students. The established process for examining each system is gone through in a step-by-step fashion in a succint yet thorough manner that is easy to read and digest. There is also a good level of detail on physical signs and their associated medical conditions for performing well in an OSCE and for when clerking patients for real. This concise, well organised approach makes it excellent for swatting up with whilst on the ward between seeing patients, and the small size makes in ammenable for carrying in your pocket. For each system there are also excellent recommendations on relevant good history taking.

The back section of the book contains more step-by-step details of how to perform more advanced practical procedures for junior doctors and simple ones like venepuncture and cannulation for medical students. There is also an excellent section on interpreting ECGs and CXRs.

This is one of the best medical textbooks I own (and I own quite a few!) and one of the finest in the oxford handbook range for medical students. I am sure it would also be a great aide memoire for junior doctors.