Reviews and Notes: Clinical Reasoning in the Health Professions

J Higgs and M Jones; eds. 347 pages. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann; 1995. $65.00. ISBN 750607874. Order phone 800-366-2665.

Clinical reasoning is a major component of clinical competence and is a dynamic process that occurs before, during, and after the collection of data through history, physical examination, imaging, and endoscopic and laboratory tests. Thirty-seven contributors to this book have produced 27 chapters on the methods clinicians use in clinical reasoning, methods used in the present and past to teach clinical reasoning, and current research related to improving student instruction in this area. Only one of the book's authors is a physician, and most references pre-date 1993.

Forms of clinical …