ABSTRACT
This chapter considers all the patient's symptoms and all the information available to doctors and assesses the symptoms, signs and information given; using this to choose the appropriate remedies for the problem and offers extra information where available and appropriate. There is so much more to listening than just the verbal messages that the patient gives doctors. Everyone constantly sends out non-verbal signals, and effective assessment involves picking up the cues and also being aware of our own 'non-verbal leakages' of emotions and feelings. We all have the same five basic senses–sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. Doctors must use these as they enter each consultation, in whatever setting, as each sense gives them important clues and pointers to the whole patient, their environment and their needs. As doctors as listening with all of their senses, they also must listen to all of their senses and be aware of how they are coming across to their patients.
