A Guide to Clinical Decision Making

Clinicians bring value to a clinical encounter not just through their medical knowledge, but their ability to apply their medical knowledge to make clinical decisions. However, these skills are typically taught implicitly, not explicitly. A Guide to Clinical Decision Making approaches the process of making clinical decisions explicitly by focusing on using heuristics, rules of thumb, to enhance diagnosis and treatment decisions. Through a systematic use of heuristics, A Guide to Clinical Decision Making teaches a simple, easy-to-follow framework that students and residents can use to quickly improve their clinical skills. By using this framework, a trainee has a well-defined path to making their medical knowledge functional in a clinical setting. This framework can help students and residents accelerate their growth as clinicians as they go through clinical rotations, residency and beyond. A Guide to Clinical Decision Making demonstrates this use of heuristics in the history, the physical exam, test selection, and treatment select. The book also includes sections on communicating clinical information verbally and in writing. The framework this book teaches will also be useful to clinical instructors as they help their students and residents improve their clinical acumen.