History Taking Essay

1553 Words7 Pages
History taking is a competent skill which enables practitioners to make accurate diagnosis and this skill is a fundamental requirement for the code of practice to maintain professional accountability (Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), 2010). Using a structured approach to guide the process can help the health professional to develop their skills in time management during the consultation and assessment. This ensures that the time a nurse has with the patient is used effectively and important elements are not missed (McEwen and Harris, 2010). Practitioners ‘must’ be apt in taking an accurate history from a set format ensuring that questions are pertinent to the diagnosis stated Crumbie (2006). In this case, the patient presented with a productive cough lasting over two. I used a holistic approach to assess the patient in general ensuring all systems relating to his presentation were covered and not rushing to a conclusion hastily which is recommended by Crumbie, (2006). The history taking was based on the Calgary Cambridge framework (Krutz, et al 2005) this involves five stages to help the nurse develop a holistic approach to the patient and empowers the patient to actively participate in their care. The first stage is initiating the session which involves preparing for the consultation, building a nurse patient rapport and gathering the reason(s) for presenting. The second stage is the information gathering stage exploring background information, exploring biomedical model and exploring the patient’s perspective. The other three stages are building a therapeutic patient-practitioner relationship, paying particular attention to non-verbal cues and closing the session and should be kept in mind. Using the mnemonic PQRST which Morton (1993) recommends as a useful tool to gather accurate information enabled me to gather information using open-ended questions and

More about History Taking Essay

Open Document