This text focuses on the interaction between health professionals and patients. It explores sensitive ethnic, socioeconomic and religious complexities in order to emphasize diversity as the basis of understanding leading to respectful communication. Each chapter includes a set of teaching tools featuring learning objectives and questions aimed at helping readers to apply concepts to real-life situations. Value clarification exercises, humorous illustrations, poetry, literature and satire are also utilized to help the student reflect on his/her own commitment. This edition features two new chapters, on newborns, infants and toddlers, and on working with patients who are abusive, demanding, depressed or impaired. In addition, there is enhanced material on helping students become clinicians, new content in the verbal communication section and a new epilogue. The impact on patient interaction of evolving trends in health care (such as confidentiality and computerized health care data systems) is also discussed.