Writing, Speaking, and Communication Skills for Health Professionals

Strong communication skills are required of today’s health care practitioners. Medical writers, medical students, residents and postdoctoral associates, physicians, biomedical researchers, nurses, pharmacists, and others in the allied health professions must develop and continue to improve their communication skills if they aspire to excellence in the medical and biological sciences. This book―a guide that belongs in the personal library of every health care professional―brims with practical advice on a broad range of essential medical communication skills.

The volume opens with an examination of how to organize the complex technical data encountered in clinics and the scientific literature. Next the book discusses the publication and presentation tasks that health care practitioners face, in particular the journal article, the grant, the conference poster, and the curriculum vitae. The third section of the volume explores teaching medicine and the problem-based record, and the final section deals with timely topics in the business of health care, including customer service, practice-building in competitive markets, meetings skills, and business writing. Easy-to-read and wide ranging, this book is the ideal communication primer for everyone in the health care field.

The authors are all experts in the field of health communications. Among their areas of expertise are public relations, medical editing and writing, teaching advanced writing and speaking skills, multicultural communication, collaborative adult learning, grant writing, management, and medical statistics.