e-Communication skills – a guide for primary care
edited by Louise Simpson, Paul Robinson, Mark Fletcher and Rob Wilson (Oxford: Radcliffe Publishing, 2005)
Reviewed by Sonia Budgen, clinical informatics specialist
This book offers – in its 121 pages and 15 chapters – a succinct summary of issues relating to communication and the management of information. I particularly enjoyed the foreword by Mike Pringle – a concise review of the change and issues that health professionals face in the current environment and in the future.
Quick reference
Although subtitled “A guide for primary care”, I found the principles and examples given pertinent to all health-care settings: good communication is an essential part of daily life, particularly in this electronic age. e-Communication Skills provides guidance for readers to refine and build on existing experience of communicating in health care – something the contributors are well placed to do.
Every chapter focuses on a particular topic, allowing each one to act as a quick reference for readers to dip into as necessary. For those involved in communication strategies, the book provides an introduction to communication – how we communicate in clinical settings – and case studies on how three communication strategies have been implemented. However, there is no formal documentation to support these.
An important art
The book also touches on health inequalities and language diversity, with particular reference to electronic solutions.
The chapter relating to information governance was particularly interesting for me, and I have used it many times as a reference to enable me to comprehend principles.
The book is short and easy to understand, and I would recommend it to anyone dealing with clients, especially as an introduction to that most important art of all – communication.