¶ … Patient's History
The expanding roles that nurses play in the healthcare field include taking the health history of patients. There are many important components to the task of taking patient histories, and this paper reviews those important aspects and components that are published in the Nursing Standard article by Lloyd H. Craig.
Craig says taking the history of patients is "…arguably the most important aspect of patient assessment" (Craig, 2007, p. 42). The reason it is so vital to the practitioner (or doctor) is that every healthcare issue or concern that the patient has encountered in his or her past -- recent or not -- may have implications for how the patient is to be treated.
Nurses do not always see the patient in a doctor's office or a hospital patient room. The nurse might encounter patients in the following environments, according to Craig: a) in an accident scene or an emergency room; b) in a general hospital ward; c) in "department areas"; d) in "primary care centres"; e) in healthcare clinics; and f) in the patient's home (Craig, 42).
No matter when the contact is made between nurse or patient, there must always be "…respect for the patient as an individual" which includes being open-minded (that is, "non-judgmental and professional") about the "beliefs and values" of the patient (Craig, 42). Part of the respect the nurse must show to patients at the time of taking histories has to do with the privacy that is provided during the process. It should be a quiet, dignified place, and the nurse must be given ample time to conduct the interview, Craig continues on page 42. Clearly the nurse already has good communication skills or he/she wouldn't be an RN in the first place, but Craig asserts that the patient must be given time to tell their story and the RN must be a good listener, to allow the story fully and without interruptions.
On page 43 Craig mentions an important part of the process which might have been alluded to earlier -- that is getting...
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