Unofficial Guide to Practical Skills: (Unofficial Guides)

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Table of Contents:
Contents 1. Simple Patient Assessments 1.1 Heart Rate and Respiratory Rate 1.2 Oxygen Saturation 1.3 Blood Pressure 1.4 Lying and Standing Blood Pressure 1.5 Ankle Brachial Pressure Index 1.6 Blood Glucose 1.7 MRSA swab 1.8 Body Mass Index 1.9 Nutritional Assessment 2. Acute Patient Management 2.1 Immediate Life Support 2.2 Choking 2.3 Sizing and Fitting a Hard Collar 2.4 Airway Management 2.5 Administering Oxygen 2.6 Intravenous Cannulation 2.7 Setting up a Giving Set 2.8 Blood Transfusion 2.9 ECG Interpretation 2.10 Fundoscopy 2.11 Central Venous Lines 3. Blood Tests 3.1 Phlebotomy 3.2 Blood Cultures 3.3 Arterial Blood Gas 3.4 Blood Gas Interpretation 4. Medication Administration 4.1 Intramuscular Injections 4.2 Subcutaneous Injections 4.3 Intradermal Injections 4.4 Intravenous Drugs 4.5 Drug Administration via Nebuliser 4.6 Operating a Syringe Driver 5. Medicine and Surgery 5.1 Simple Dressing Change 5.2 Knee Joint Aspiration 5.3 Nasogastric Tube Insertion 5.4 Diagnostic Pleural Tap 5.5 Diagnostic Ascitic Tap 5.6 Lumbar Puncture 5.7 Proctoscopy 5.8 Flexible Sigmoidoscopy 5.9 Instruments 5.10 Suturing 5.11 Surgical Gowning and Gloving 6. Urology 6.1 Urinalysis 6.2 Male Urethral Catheterisation 6.3 Female Urethral Catheterisation 6.4 Suprapubic Cathetersation 7. Paediatrics 7.1 Peak Flow 7.2 Inhaler Technique 7.3 Preparing Baby Formula Milk 8. General Skills 8.1 Hand Washing 8.2 Infection Control 8.3 Manual Handling 8.4 Death Certification

About the Author :
Emily Hotton is a Foundation Doctor working within Severn Deanery following her graduation from the University of Bristol. During her undergraduate training she has published and presented several research projects. During her training in Bristol she was part of a research group developing an interprofessional training programme for maternity students. This work won her the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Calcutta Eden Hospital Prize 2012. Stemming from this, her interest in training and medical education grew. She initially became involved in the Unofficial Guide Series by reviewing individual sections, her role grew to reviewing books and recommending adaptations. This sparked her interest in writing and she became an author and editor for the series. She shares the ethos of 'The Unofficial Guide Series' - that fresh graduates are able to impart knowledge in an interactive, logical, accessible and interesting manner to both students and trainees. Zeshan Qureshi is a Paediatrician based at Great Ormond Street and the Institute of Global Health. He graduated with Distinction from the University of Southampton, and has published and presented research work extensively and internationally in the fields of pharmacology and medical education. Whilst working in Edinburgh he was part of the leadership team developing a near peer teaching programme, where by junior doctors, throughout south east scotland, were both trained to teach, and delivered teaching across every hospital in the area. This book is an extension of this philosophy: that junior doctors and fresh graduates know how to express complex ideas in order for it to be easily understood from a students perspective. That junior doctors can teach, and write in a complimentary way to senior doctors: one that is friendly and fun, easy to read and relevant to both exams, and the day to day to life of junior doctors.

Review :
This book is far better than others I have previously used for learning and practicing practical skills. The best thing about this book are the examiner style mark schemes, which make it obvious how and what to revise, and make it easy to practice the skills. The content is very comprehensive, containing everything you need for exams, with other more interesting and advanced skills as well. It has a great, easy to see layout with useful pictures which makes very clear what you need to know and the techniques you need to use. I am using this now for finals revision and wish I had something like this in earlier years. -- Nathan Prost, Final Year Medical Student The Unofficial Guide to Practical Skills is a successful attempt at providing a solid foundation to over 50 practical skills. In addition to core clinical competencies, a number of additional practical skills expected of junior doctors are also detailed. Concise details about each practical skill are provided along with bullet point lists and illustrations. A step-by-step guide helps ensure the reader does not become lost in the complexities of a skill; moreover the authors manage to breakdown the individual skill into components, allowing the student to appreciate the underpinning science whilst improving their proficiency. The clear layout, colour print, varied text size, photographs and illustrations all add to the appeal of this book. This guide gives the reader a good summary of knowledge that might have been acquired previously or seen in the clinical setting. Particularly helpful are the 'Additional Questions to Consider' which allow the reader to reflect on what they have learnt and consider additional knowledge that they may require. The sometimes fast pace of the clinical environment necessitates healthcare workers to conduct a skill as if it is second nature. Although no clinical skills session, book or video can fully prepare any clinician for the complexities of real clinical practice, The Unofficial Guide to Practical Skills certainly provides the essential building blocks for students and doctors to consolidate their knowledge and perform skills with confidence. Throughout the book there are 'Mark Scheme for the Examiner' sections - clearly these are useful for students preparing for exams, or indeed even practicing the skills with colleagues. However, readers should always remember that such mark schemes have limitations and cannot be fully reflective of exam mark schemes at medical schools - knowledge and evidence is always changing in the world of medicine, and consequently, procedural skills are modified over time to reflect this. This will no doubt result in future updated editions of this book. As with any practical skill there is always variation in technique and this has to be remembered when learning from this informative book. Such differences provide opportunities for discussion and reflection with faculty staff and peers - indeed, learning about varied techniques can be helpful reinforcement of the knowledge provided in The Unofficial Guide to Practical Skills. One might consider the size of this guide to be rather large at A4, however, it seems this is necessary to help convey the right amount of information and display it in an acceptable format. In the next edition of this book it would be useful for the text to contain links to any (online) resources which might help the reader reinforce what they have learnt. Amongst the numerous practical skills guides available globally, it is refreshing to find a book which brings together many of the appealing features seen in clinical skills guides, resulting in a highly interactive and informative book. This makes the cost of this book a worthy investment and it will no doubt become ingrained into the resource portfolio of clinical skills students and act as a summary guide for junior doctors. -- Waseem Ahmed, MB BS BSc MRCS (ENT) DOHNS International Journal of Clinical Skills The once daunting prospect of approaching practical skills can now be overcome by using this refreshingly comprehensive and user-friendly guide.Including both skills focused on by the GMC and an array of additional skills essential in the armory of a junior doctor, this book really is a must have. -- Robert Miller, Final Year Medical Student Practical skills can be very tricky to master, and performing them on the wards can be nerve wracking - especially when you're being observed by more senior doctors! I found this book really helpful. It includes loads of pictures as it's really difficult to learn practical skills just from notes. For example, at one point it says, 'occlude the vein' and then gives a picture of how exactly to do this. Some other guides can take it for granted that you already know what this means! Guides to learning practical skills can also be rather dry and technical but this book breaks it up with bits of advice such as when to ask a colleague for help. The OSCE mark schemes and Q&A sections give you an insight into what you need to know beyond simply carrying out the procedure. -- Rachel McNulty, Medical Student