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Taking a Patients History

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Taking a Patients History
Introduction
‘A guide to taking a patients history’ is an article published in the Nursing Standard journal, in the December 5, 2007 volume 22, issue 13, pages 42-48, written by Hilary Lloyd and Stephen Craig. In this article, Lloyd and Craig provide an overview of taking a patient’s history related to nursing. There are certain questions that should be asked and this article outlines what to ask and how to ask it. This article also provides a great overview of cardinal symptoms for each system in the body and several methods for taking a comprehensive history.
Summary
Taking a successful history includes preparing the environment and effective communication skills. This is “arguably the most important part of patient assessment” (Lloyd & Craig, 2007, p. 42). In the process, patients are able to present vital information about their problem in their own words. To explore a decline in a patient’s health requires a very careful evaluation of patient needs. Allowing adequate time is essential to complete the history and avoid receiving incomplete information. The environment should be assessed first for the safety of both the patient and nurse, have no distractions, be quiet, have the right equipment and be conducted in a private setting in order to maintain patient confidentiality.
Cultural consideration is important to taking the history. The assessment must be conducted with respect for the patient, an approach that requires that the patient’s beliefs and values be considered, the nurse avoid being judgmental, and remain professional. It is also very important to assess health beliefs and practices since a person’s perceptions about health and illness are greatly influenced by one’s heritage and culture.
Lloyd and Craig note that the importance of taking a comprehensive history cannot be overestimated and good communication skills are essential (Lloyd & Craig, 2007). They recommend that the nurse begin the interview by introducing herself and then listening actively while the patient tells her story in her own words, taking care not to appear rushed to avoid interfering with the patient’s desire to disclose information. They also recommend developing a rapport with the patient, an approach that requires a friendly but professional attitude, avoidance of medical jargon, and both verbal and nonverbal communication skills. In taking the history, Lloyd and Craig advise following a specific order in the questions being asked, starting with the presenting complaint and ending with a summary (Lloyd & Craig, 2007). They assert that by starting with open ended questions the history-taker can obtain more information and that once the patient has finished telling her story, closed questions can enhance the story by adding detail and precision. After the open and closed questions have been asked and answered, they advocate clarifying the history with the patient. The Calgary Cambridge framework for history-taking is built on five stages-explanation and planning, aiding accurate recall and understanding, achieving a shared understanding, planning through shared decision making, and closing the consultation (Lloyd & Craig, 2007). This approach is structured with multiple “cardinal symptoms” categories that ensure that the history-taker asks about key symptoms in each body system, thus reducing the chance of missing a symptom (Lloyd & Craig, 2007, p. 45).
Evaluation
This article was clearly laid out, and the history-taking approaches were explained well. One of the article’s best features was its organization, in which points were brought up one at a time in logical order and explained fully before going on to the next point. The grammar used is easily understood and a nonprofessional could easily comprehend the information. The transition from one paragraph to another seems to flow in sequence from the beginning to the end. The article was interesting in its explanations concerning why it was helpful to do things a certain way, but overall it was more of a reference article than one designed for pleasurable reading. It does relate to my area of practice, so I will be able to put the information to good use. The health assessment strategy was beneficial both for its organized approach and its step-by-step framework, and I can adopt it in my role as an emergency room nurse triaging patients. In addition, the health assessment strategy was explained quite clearly and with sufficient detail to make it understandable and usable. Although this article was excellent, it is a generalized approach that does not help history-takers that have to deal with a particular target population of individuals that have problems communicating with the history-taker. No special instructions are given for communicating with patients who have dementia, speak another language, or for communicating with children, and each of these groups present unique problems to history-takers.
Conclusion
This article provides practical insights to obtaining a health history as well as various strategies to follow that will ensure the collection of accurate data. This was a helpful article with specific information that can be put to use in taking patient histories. Following the guide outlined in the article along with experience will enable the nurse to build needed confidence to go from novice to expert, ensuring that patient histories complete and comprehensive. The article was well organized and formatted for easy readability, and the approaches described were easily usable. The only shortcoming was the generalized coverage of the history-taking process, which did not include any specific instructions for the numerous patient populations that have special needs.
Reference
Lloyd, H., & Craig, S. (2007). A guide to taking a patient's history. Clinical skills: 28. Nursing Standard, 22(13), 42-48.

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