Overview

How Doctors Think defines the nature and importance of clinical judgment. Although physicians make use of science, this book argues that medicine is not itself a science but rather an interpretive practice that relies on clinical reasoning. A physician looks at the patient's history along with the presenting physical signs and symptoms and juxtaposes these with clinical experience and empirical studies to construct a tentative account of the illness.How Doctors Think is divided into four parts. Part one introduces the concept of medicine as a practice rather than a science; part two discusses the idea of causation; part three delves into the process of forming clinical judgment; and part four considers clinical judgment within the uncertain nature of medicine itself. In How Doctors Think, Montgomery contends that assuming medicine is strictly a science can have adverse side effects, and suggests reducing these by recognizing the vital role of clinical judgment. ""This is a book that will be read with pleasure by anyone interested in how medicine is done and it is a book that should be required reading for all students starting their clinical training.""--Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine""Montgomery has certainly written a piece that will stimulate people to think more deeply about medical and wider health professional practice. It is a text I will recommend to students and colleagues.""--PsycCRITIQUES

Full Product Details

Author:   Kathryn Mongtomery (, Professor of Medical Humanities and Bioethics, Northwestern University)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 15.30cm , Height: 0.80cm , Length: 23.30cm
Weight:   0.481kg
ISBN:  

9780199942053

ISBN 10:   0199942056
Pages:   256
Publication Date:   22 November 2012
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

"PART I. MEDICINE AS A PRACTICE 1. Medicine and the Limits of Knowledge 2. The Misdescription of Medicine PART II. CLINICAL JUDGMENT AND THE IDEA OF CAUSE 3. Clinical Judgment and the Interpretation of the Case 4. ""What Brings You Here Today?"": The Idea of Cause in Medical Practice 5. The Simplification of Clinical Cause 6. Clinical Judgment and the Problem of Particularizing PART III. THE FORMATION OF CLINICAL JUDGMENT 7. Aphorisms, Maxims, and Old Saws: Some Rules of Clinical Reasoning 8. ""Don't Think Zebras"": A Theory of Clinical Knowing 9. Knowing One's Place: The Evaluation of Clinical Judgment PART IV. CLINICAL JUDGMENT AND THE NATURE OF MEDICINE 10. The Self in Medicine: The Use and Misuse of the Science Claim 11. A Medicine of Neighbors 12. Uncertainty and the Ethics of Practice"

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Professor of Medical Humanities and Bioethics, Northwestern University

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