To write a textbook of medicine for students of medicine requires scientific accuracy, clarity of expression, and a discriminating sense of priority. To write such a textbook for members of other health professions, the author must take an additional leap—of creativity, imagination, and interprofessional empathy. He must be able to answer the questions: What does the reader really need to know about medicine? In what depth? How will he use the information? What decisions will be based on his knowledge? And what information and vocabulary does he already possess?
The book Medicine for the Paramedical Professions attempts this doubly difficult task. Multiauthored, it is edited by Douglas W. Piper, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Sydney. Timely in its intent, in view of the burgeoning numbers and kinds of health professionals, it is directed toward nurses, technicians, social workers, physiotherapists, and dietitians. A companion Workbook poses a