Clinical reasoning

Practising doctors are distinguished from other healthcare staff by their role in making a clinical diagnosis. Huge changes in training and working practice in the past 15 years may have left many junior doctors ill equipped or preferring not to synthesise information to conclude a clerking with a diagnosis or differential diagnosis. This report details a retrospective study of acute medical admissions (AMU) first seen in the emergency department (A&E) and the diagnostic activity of junior doctors in both settings.