The Medical Interview: Mastering Skills for Clinical Practice

Many clinicians confuse conversation skills (which most people have) with professional communication skills (which most have had little formal training in at all).The cinicians in our practice have found it helpful in becoming more patient-centered in the goals setting process. The payoff being that patients who are more involved in their goal setiing and treatment planning are usually are more adherent to their treatment plan and demonstrate better outcomes. The book does a good job describing the difference between the traditional clinician-centered interview proceess and the patient-centered interview process and helping us blend the two. It does a particularly good job at giving strategies of how to work with various types of patients, i.e. the reticent, passive, overly talkative etc..Strong in the fundamentals. Practical.Highly recommended

Excellent book for an introduction of the subject to medical students. Gives many examples of interviews that are very helpful. Rapid reading.