Based on the very successful Narrative Based Medicine conference in September 2001. The editors have selected topics around the best sessions and will invite new chapters, not just the papers from the conference. The book is designed to explore the theoretical issues of narrative applied to health care, and how they impact on the practice of medicine and applied social sciences. The book will show how the new approach is more indepth than traditional history taking, placing the individual's story in wider social and ethical contexts. This will be an internationally contributed book and will...

Guidelines are powerful instruments of assistance to clinicians, capable of extending the clinical roles of nurses and pharmacists. Purchasers and managers perceive them as technological tools guaranteeing treatment quality. Guidelines also offer mechanisms by which doctors and other health care professionals can be made more accountable to their patients. - But how can clinicians tell whether a guideline has authority, and whether or not it should be followed? - Does the law protect doctors who comply with guidelines? - Are guideline developers liable for faulty advice? This timely book...