This book provides a refreshing alternative to teaching patient assessment and is effective as a teaching aid due to the dynamic approach adopted by the authors.
With an emphasis on the frst 60 seconds of any patient contact, the focus is on a rapid initial assessment and interpreting a small number of clinical observations to determine if a patient is sick/not sick.
Relevant to paramedics and other clinical roles within the ambulance service, and not restricted to critically ill patients either, the importance of critical thinking is promoted to interpreting key clinical indicators and important physiological clues.
Some of the content is written at a very basic level but the numerous patient scenarios interspersed throughout are thought-provoking and provide a broad range of differential diagnoses for the reader to consider.
Combined with case studies, the occasional quiz and chapter summaries identifying key learning points, this is a user-friendly text. There is a separate section on paediatrics, recognizing the specifc challenges clinicians face when assessing younger patients, and it does represent a valuable learning tool. Well worth a read.
‘The numerous patient scenarios interspersed throughout are thought-provoking‘
However, do not expect to fnd a lot of A & P and while fow charts are presented in an easily digestible format, they should not be accepted as defnitive treatment pathways. At variance with a lot of contemporary clinical guidance, I am also not entirely sure of some of the sick/not sick principles e.g if the clinical picture is not clear in the frst minute, then the patient is not sick.
Still, this book is an interesting take on patient assessment. Accepting that some of the sick/not sick principles are perhaps a little too simplistic, it is useful for sharpening those all important diagnostic skills.