Building a Healthy History
Building an accurate health history is more than just asking patients questions during their appointment. It is the entryway to building a compelling clinician–patient relationship that will empower patients to feel calm, supported, and engaged. It involves many different steps and techniques to collect patient health information, so patients can receive the accurate care that they need. NURS 6512 week 1 Building a Healthy History
The Patient
The patient I chose to interview is the 76-year-old Black/African-American male with disabilities living in an urban setting. According to Elsawy & Higgins (2011), the geriatric assessment is a multidimensional, multidisciplinary assessment designed to evaluate an older person’s functional ability, physical health, cognition and mental health, and socioenvironmental circumstances. Geriatric patients regularly present with complex medical issues that have been recently overseen by various health care practitioners, a considerable list of medications, and physical constraints. Additionally, numerous patients go to their appointments joined by others, including relatives and home chaperons. Bearing this in mind, to increase productivity at the patient’s first encounter, I would ask the patient and/or their families to complete a pre-visit questionnaire. The answers provided can facilitate the initial visit by concentrating the dialog on the patient’s concerns, while enabling me to obtain an intensive history including medications and review of systems.