4. Communicating and dealing with patients during the physical examination

This chapter looks at communicating and dealing with patients during all the steps of a physical examination. How do you tell your patient what is going to happen, how do you give clear instructions during the examination and how do you ensure safety and comfort for the patient? We explore what findings you should disclose to the patient during the examination and how to do so. Another aspect we deal with is what to bear in mind regarding diversity in the consulting room. Lastly, we discuss what points to watch out for when there are other people in the examination room (e.g. partners or parents), when examining patients with a poor command of the language and when examining children.