Clerking

One of the primary roles of the house officer is clerking. Most times the person with best opportunity to get a full and complete history will be the house officers first attending to the patient. Therefore they must be trained and equipped to take a full and proper history which not only tease out the positive symptoms but also the relevant negatives. If they fail to do so a golden opportunity would have passed for the patient's stroke may worsen and render him or her aphasic, or respirator distress intervene and cause the intubation of the patient.
The following clerking manual is based on my old MRCP PACES notes on history-taking. I have taken the liberty of arranging the symptoms in the form of differential diagnosis. This manual as I often repeat is bicycle training wheel. When the house officer is new he or she is encouraged to strictly adhere and ask all the differential diagnosis so as not to miss something that may kill the patient. However once they have reach a certain level of competence and confidence then they may start to develop their own styles. Even then they must still cover all the relevant negatives.
The clerking manual
Nota bene: This blogpost and the manual in no way constitutes any medical advice implicit or explicit. It is only for educations purposes.