StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Taking a Patient's History - Book Report/Review Example

Cite this document
Summary
This book review "Taking a Patient's History" discusses Lloyd and Craig that have tried to strengthen nursing, general healthcare policy, and expected professional conduct. Practicing requires high ethical standards and the cultivation of patience, care, and good conduct…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER94.4% of users find it useful
Taking a Patients History
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Taking a Patient's History"

This paper is a review and analysis of A Guide to taking patients' history as presented by H. Lloyd and S. Craig. The paper addresses issues around nursing standards and healthcare management for matters related to clinical observation and testing as a means of diagnosing a patient. As Lloyd and Craig put it in the article, the art of clear communication will also go to great lengths in assisting a health practitioner to relate cordially with a patient to arrive at the right conclusion. In taking a medical history of a patient, Lloyd and Craig assert the importance of order and facilitating an appropriate environment.

Introduction

Lloyd and Craig suggest that the most important thing to do while preparing to conduct an assessment on a patient is to prepare the environment. They advise on following procedures as it helps the patients to give an account of their problem, some of which nursing assessment cannot arrive at successfully. As skilled and experienced practitioners, Lloyd and Craig proceed to give an outlined, sequential, and systematic way of conducting the medical history of a patient. Together, both Lloyd and Craig underscore the importance of a medical practitioner and developing a closer personal relationship with a patient as the patient is being taken through a systematic assessment of history taking.

Summary of the Article

In making an appropriate environment, Lloyd and Craig advise that it is of fundamental importance to assess the environment to see if the patient is comfortable with the whole setting. They advise that the kind of environment that will preserve patients’ privacy and dignity is the most appropriate one to do an assessment. Additionally, they advise that cultural aspects the patient is concerned with should always be respected. Using clear, concise, and easily understandable language is recommended. The purpose of a medical assessment is to get feedback; therefore, the communication aspect should override any complexity that may be posed by high proficiency and the use of jargon. That use of non-verbal communications like nodding in approval and maintaining eye contact with the patient would go a long way to facilitate good communication with the patient, thereby facilitating assessment.

Another aspect of communication while handling a patient is tone. Lloyd and Craig observe that addressing patients using the right tone is a good communication habit. Additionally, a practitioner should always get consent from a patient before embarking on any check-up or assessment. Just before the assessment on history taking begins, it is advisable to make an introduction of yourself and find out how your patient would like to be called. Scholars have advised that the history-taking process should be sequential (Lloyd and Craig, 2007).

The review notes that different ways of gathering information can be used to gather a patient’s medical history. For instance, an open-ended question can be used before finally asking questions on the assessment areas not covered. That to be sure, it is also recommended that a practitioner summarizes the whole history back to the patient for purposes of clarification. Another aspect of history taking from a patient that Lloyd and Craig advice is that history taking sequence should be in this order: present complaint, past medical history, mental health, medication history, family history, social history, sexual history, and occupation history. A systematic inquiry is always of great essence.

Point often overlooked is counter-checking the history with your patient after you have recorded it down so that both the practitioner and the patient are in agreement about the information collected. During taking of a patient’s history, each symptom should be explored in detail. It has also been noted that sometimes, inappropriate history collection method that is unethical may occur. It is therefore advisable to avoid asking questions like “How” so much while taking history. In many cases, your patient may suddenly become unresponsive or withhold some information back (Lloyd and Craig, 2007).

It is recommended that a patient gives an account from his own point of view. For example, asking a question like “what is the problem” to a patient sets one free to talk out what really bothers him. One thing that must be observed while taking a medical history is to watch out for symptoms and be attentive to the patient you were attending. The symptoms to watch against are those ones associated with general health, central nervous system, endocrine, gastrointestinal system, genitourinary system, gender-specific symptoms amongst the rest. All other categories of history should be taken using specific parameters and sequences that best assess them.

Evaluation of the article

As noted above, this article by Lloyd and Craig has set in a more summarized way of doing an assessment when taking a patient’s history. Arranged in a systematic way, Lloyd and Craig try to address the need for simplified guidelines for health practitioners in an attempt to improve services in the field of healthcare. In a clever way, the writers have also drawn close relationships between ethics, culture, and nursing competence as fundamental issues that need to be put into consideration by health practitioners.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Journal Article Review (A guide to taking a patient's history) authors Book Report/”, n.d.)
Journal Article Review (A guide to taking a patient's history) authors Book Report/. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/nursing/1435770-journal-article-review-a-guide-to-taking-a-patient
(Journal Article Review (A Guide to Taking a patient'S History) Authors Book Report/)
Journal Article Review (A Guide to Taking a patient'S History) Authors Book Report/. https://studentshare.org/nursing/1435770-journal-article-review-a-guide-to-taking-a-patient.
“Journal Article Review (A Guide to Taking a patient'S History) Authors Book Report/”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/nursing/1435770-journal-article-review-a-guide-to-taking-a-patient.
  • Cited: 1 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Taking a Patient's History

Geriatric Category Patients and Their Treatment

The particular patient shortlisted for this assessment belongs to the geriatric category as he is an 80 years old man, with an established diagnosis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), probably precipitated due to a history of excessive smoking.... The man has also suffered an episode of shingles, as revealed from his medical history sheet.... aking the history of a patient is an art that needs to be mastered by each nursing professional....
14 Pages (3500 words) Essay

Nursing Adults: The Practice of Caring

The said article, entitled “A guide to Taking a Patient's History”, focused on the process involved in the acquisition of the patient's health history, considering several necessary factors such the environment, the nurse's communication skills, and the order of events in the history-taking.... The authors mentioned the expanding roles of nurses, especially when it comes to assessment; therefore, nurses need to know the proper way of Taking a Patient's History....
6 Pages (1500 words) Book Report/Review

A Review of lloyd and Craig 2007

Running head: JOURNAL ARTICLE REVIEW Journal Article Review: A Review of Lloyd and Craig (2007) Journal Article Review: A Review of Lloyd and Craig (2007) Introduction Lloyd and Craig's 2007 article 'A guide to Taking a Patient's History,' published in the December issue of Nursing Standard, provides readers with a framework for conducting a patient assessment, including the all-important step of taking a patient's background and history information.... Lloyd and Craig (2007) describe some prior theories for Taking a Patient's History information, and then provide their own guidelines....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

A guide to taking a patient's history

‘A guide to patient's history obtaining Nursing' article by Lloyd and Craig investigates the approach of gathering history of a patient.... he guide identifies the procedure and reason of patient's history obtaining,the significance of environment preparation and how efficient skills of communication aid in the taking of accurate history.... ‘A guide to patient's history obtaining Nursing' article by Lloyd and Craig investigates the approach of gathering history of a patient....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

A guide to taking a patient's history, Clinical skills: 28

 A Guide to Taking a Patient's History Name: Institution:       A Guide to Taking a Patient's History Introduction This paper is an examination of the article, A Guide to Taking a Patient's History written by Hilary Lloyd and Stephen Craig.... Summary of the Article The focus of the article is on the process of taking a history from a patient.... According to the article, the process of taking a history from a patient incorporates preparing the environment, communication skills, and the significance of order....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Nursing High School Case Study

A guide to Taking a Patient's History.... his scenario lacks very important information which should be gathered during the health history/interview process.... This scenario lacks very important information which should be gathered during the health history/interview process.... As for this patient, or for any patient for that matter, it is vital that the past medical history of the patient should be asked as to the diagnosis, date of onset, duration and medical management....
2 Pages (500 words) Case Study

A Guide to Taking a Patient's History

The author analyzes "A Guide to Taking a Patient's History" article published in Nursing Standard in the December 2007 issue, written by H.... The rationale for taking a comprehensive history is also discussed.... The article has focused the sequential nature for capturing history where the author has described presenting complaint and different types of histories which are necessary to evaluate a patient.... Due to the inept method of treatment for a patient without knowing his history can give rise to a medical error and fatal medical mishaps....
7 Pages (1750 words) Assignment

A Guide to Taking Patient History

The said article, entitled 'A guide to Taking a Patient's History', focused on the process involved in the acquisition of the patient's health history, considering several necessary factors such the environment, the nurse's communication skills, and the order of events in the history-taking.... The authors mentioned the expanding roles of nurses, especially when it comes to assessment; therefore, nurses need to know the proper way of Taking a Patient's History....
6 Pages (1500 words) Book Report/Review
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us