Clinical Judgement in the Health and Welfare Professions : Extending the Evidence Base

"I recommend this text to anyone who has an abiding interest in not how we should make decisions but how, in reality, we do." Journal of Clinical Nursing How do clinicians use formal knowledge in their practice? What other kinds of reasoning are used? What is the place of moral judgement in clinical practice? In the last decade, the problem of clinical judgement has been reduced to the simple question: what works? However, before clinicians can begin to think about what works, they must first address more fundamental questions such as: what's wrong? or what sort of problem is this? The complex ways in which professionals negotiate the process of case formulation remain radically under-explored in the existing literature. This timely book examines this neglected area. Drawing on the authors' own detailed ethnographic and discourse analytic studies and on developments in social science, the book aims to reconstitute clinical judgement and case formulation as both practical-moral and rational-technical activities. By making social scientific work more accessible and meaningful to professionals in practice, it develops the case for a more realistic approach to the many reasoning processes involved in clinical judgement. Clinical Judgement in the Health and Welfare Professions has been written for educators, managers, practitioners and advanced students in health and social care. It will also appeal to those with an interest in the analysis of institutional discourse and ethnographic research.

Susan White is Professor of Health and Social Care at the University of Huddersfield.