Knut Schroeder Wiley-Blackwell, 2016, PB, 832pp, £49.99, 978-1119106340
Ten-minute consultations are often rushed affairs with most of us running late. So how do we keep to time while being clinically effective, safe, and patient centred? The 10-Minute Clinical Assessment by Knut Schroeder has the answers.
The book provides a helpful guide for GPs, nurses, GP trainees, and medical students wanting to deliver a more efficient consultation that also includes the essential clinical content. It covers a comprehensive range of subjects with 154 different clinical presentations included. These range from hirsutism to heart failure to self-harm. It also includes an excellent section on medically unexplained symptoms and homelessness; I can’t remember the last time that I have read a consultation book that routinely covers an assessment on homelessness. This book is thorough!
Complex presentations, multiple morbidity, and polypharmacy are increasingly common in general practice and are definitely found in this book. These sections were particularly useful to read given how tricky these cases can be to manage in 10 minutes. The approach that is set out within each assessment is systematic and easy to follow. Each section is a quick read with bulleted points that cover only the essentials. There are also helpful additional grey boxes to highlight the red flags that should not be missed.
I think this book could also be helpful outside of the consultation when trying to get through the mountains of admin and filing of blood results. This is because it has informative and succinct sections that could be used to revise electrolyte imbalances (hypokalaemia, hypocalcaemia, hyponatraemia), bleeding disorder, and anaemias. Although the clinical content is great, this book was a real winner for me in terms of the practical points and guidance provided at the start of each section. These points clearly show years of experience in general practice and are golden.
Although I was initially putting off reading these 814 pages of black and white text in size 10 font, it was a totally worthwhile and easy read. I can certainly see myself using this book as a quick reference tool during consultations and have already found a special spot for it on my desk.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2017
