Mujammil Irfan Wiley-Blackwell, 2019, PB, 368pp, £29.19, 978-1119244035
The Hands-on Guide to Clinical Reasoning in Medicine aims to provide a practical approach to undertake clinical reasoning for medical students in their training years, newly qualified doctors, and advanced nurse practitioners.
The book is written in an informal, conversational style with a friendly and coaching feel. To engage fully with this book, a reader must have a good working knowledge of a range of medical conditions.
The book is organised into clinical specialties including respiratory neurology and endocrinology. Each section is set out to provide an introduction to the topic including history taking, clinical examination, pathophysiology, and key investigations. The reader is challenged by a series of simulated clinical scenarios to evoke guided clinical reasoning. As a chapter progresses, further clinical information is presented to develop a case. Although readers can dip in and out of chapters, the glossary is a must to understand the acronyms used and the reader must consult the chapter guide.
Mujammil Irfan uses mind maps as representations of potential thought processes to guide the reader through understanding clinical reasoning. For a novice without developed patterns of clinical reasoning, each section may require a little more consideration; however, these could be easily parallel within clinical scenarios seen in early practice or discussed within medical school training. Reviewing this as a doctor qualified for a few years, the questions are thought provoking, with a patient at the centre. The prompts in the text serve as a useful guide to develop skills in clinical reasoning.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2020
