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CLINICALLY: CLERKING AND CLECKING


A typical medical practitioner knows all about this process of clerking, this is basically the first thing he does when attending to a patient i.e. he clerks.
Clinically, clerking involves:
1.      History Taking- involves taking demographic data, noting the main presenting problems, past medical history, history of main presenting complaint, family history, occupational history, drug history, alcohol history e.t.c. Basically, it helps in determination of symptoms.
2.      Physical Examination- is useful in the elicitation of signs of the disease in question.
3.      Provisional and differential diagnosis: the clinical history and physical examination conducted will help the clinician arrive at provisional diagnosis, from which he arrives at a differential diagnosis.
4.      Management Plan- involves investigative procedures (e.g. haematological investigations) as well as a treatment plan for the diagnosed disease.
How about clecking? Clecking is not a word that’s used too often, except with regards to twitter. It is actually derived from the Welsh word “clecan”, that means “to gossip”. Cool, right?
Anyways, a clerk cannot be a cleck. It is ethically wrong, so I was taught, and so I know. A clerk, who doubles as a cleck is violating the confidentiality code between the patient and the doctor, and this might consequently breach the patient-doctor relationship.
However, at times, it is also debatable because sometimes, this code might be breached if there is an overriding duty to society, the doctor has the patient’s permission to do so, on strict legal grounds, if it is in the patient’s best interests or after death.
Point noted, I hope?


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