Lesson 2.1 — Explain Your Thinking
Patients cannot see your clinical reasoning. RCGP’s toolkit encourages verbalising why you are asking certain questions or recommending an examination, test or option. This can reduce anxiety, make sensitive questions feel less intrusive and turn the consultation into a partnership.
Reason → question/action → relevance to the patient
- Sensitive sexual history: “Because some infections can cause symptoms like these, I’d like to ask a few personal questions about sexual health, if that’s okay.”
- Neurological questions: “I’m going to ask about weakness, speech and vision because those symptoms would change how urgently we need to assess the headache.”
- No antibiotics: “From what you’ve told me, this sounds more consistent with a viral infection, so antibiotics are unlikely to help and could cause side effects.”