Discussion: Building a Health History

Effective communication is vital to constructing  an accurate and detailed patient history. A patient’s health or illness  is influenced by many factors, including age, gender, ethnicity, and  environmental setting. As an advanced practice nurse, you must be aware  of these factors and tailor your communication techniques accordingly.  Doing so will not only help you establish rapport with your patients,  but it will also enable you to more effectively gather the information  needed to assess your patients’ health risks.

For this Discussion, you will take on the role  of a clinician who is building a health history for a particular new  patient assigned by your Instructor.

                                               To prepare: 

 By Day 1 of this week, you will be assigned a new patient profile by your Instructor for this Discussion. ( new patient profile):   14-year-old biracial male living with his grandmother in a high-density public housing complex 

How would your communication and interview techniques for building a health history differ with each patient?

How might you target your questions for building a health history based on the patient’s social determinants of health?

What  risk assessment instruments would be appropriate to use with each  patient, or what questions would you ask each patient to assess his or  her health risks?

Identify  any potential health-related risks based upon the patient’s age,  gender, ethnicity, or environmental setting that should be taken into  consideration.

Select  one of the risk assessment instruments presented in Chapter 1 or Chapter 5 of the Seidel’s Guide to Physical Examination text, or another tool with which you are familiar, related to your selected patient.
 

Develop  at least five targeted questions you would ask your selected patient to assess his or her health risks and begin building a health history.

Post a summary of the interview and a  description of the communication techniques you would use with your  assigned patient. Explain why you would use these techniques. Identify  the risk assessment instrument you selected, and justify why it would be  applicable to the selected patient. Provide at least five targeted  questions you would ask the patient.

NOTE: THIS IS THE LINK TO DOWNLOAD THE BOOK YOU NEED TO COMPLETE THE DISCUSSION QUESTION