Practical Plans for Difficult Conversations in Medicine

Although they receive extensive clinical training, medical practitioners are given little or no instruction about the best way to break bad news. In this book and DVD set, Robert Buckman, author of How to Break Bad News, offers solid, practical, and practicable guidelines for such conversations as the diagnosis of a serious or fatal illness, the death of a loved one in the hospital, or a disclosure of medical error. This is a book about communication techniques that work in everyday clinical practice. It is not a series of prefabricated scripts but a collection of strategies and approaches that any clinician can use to effectively communicate with patients. Using basic, honest communication tools, Buckman shows doctors how to approach conversations dealing with the most sensitive medical topics. He explains what to anticipate in various situations and provides guidance on keeping the discussion as constructive as possible. For each of several scenarios, Buckman supplies alternative responses, indicating which can work best and why. Each protocol is given an acronym to provide a mnemonic aid to help clinicians respond quickly and effectively. The accompanying DVD illustrates the protocols with recordings of unscripted and unrehearsed conversations with standardized patients, showing how the strategies can actually work in real situations in a realistic time frame. Based on sound, proven strategies and peppered throughout with illustrative examples, Practical Plans for Difficult Conversations in Medicine provides the tools and knowledge necessary to start and sustain a genuine conversation at a moment when the first thought is "I have no idea what to say now."

ISBN 0801895588   Pages 160 ISBN13 9780801895586 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 295 Publisher Johns Hopkins University Press   Published in Baltimore, MD Imprint Johns Hopkins University Press   Height (mm) 229 Format Paperback   Width (mm) 152 Publication date 09 Jul 2010   Spine width (mm) 10 DEWEY 610.696   Academic level Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC22   Interest age From 17

		Preface
		Introduction. Prescribing the Doctor as Part of the Treatment		1
1		Some "Can't Go Wrong" Tips		8
2		Breaking Bad News: The SPIKES Protocol		21
3		Disclosing Error: The CONES Protocol		75
4		Managing Conflict and Escalation: The HARD Protocol		91
5		Giving Information Effectively: The SAFER Protocol		97
6		Some Particularly Difficult Conversations		107
		Conclusion. Putting It All Together and Making a Difference in Communication		121
		Acknowledgments		127
		Appendix Notes to Accompany the Scenarios on DVD		129
		Notes		137
		Index		139

Buckman offers the tools and knowledge base to help a medical practitioner start and maintain a professional conversation during extremely sensitive times and circumstances... Highly recommended. Choice 2011 Practical Plans for Difficult Conversations aims to ground its ideas firmly within the real world of clinical medicine. All of the examples are set in real situations and this is the book's main strength. Readers will recognise, immediately, the areas that do cause problems, and will be able to imagine themselves within each scenario. Times Educational Supplement 2011

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