Nursing Week Two Journal Review Lloyd, H,

Nursing Week Two Journal Review Lloyd, H, & Craig, S. (2007). A guide to taking a patient's history. Nursing Standard, 22(13), 42-48. Lloyd and Craig's article, "A guide to taking a patient's history" provides the fundamental components to attaining a complete, thorough and effective patient history.

The article explores on the basic importance of a patient history and the importance of preparing the environment, communication, gaining consent, the process of actually attaining the information and finally actually taking the different type of history's that a patient can have including past medical history, sexual history, medication history, mental health, family history, among others.

First, the article discusses preparing the environment to take the history which is important because it allows for the "maintenance of privacy and dignity" so it builds patient trust in the nurse (Lloyd and Craig, 2007). It is also important to allow for sufficient time in preparing to take a history as it allows for more time to get all the details and information that are necessary for future treatment.

Another important component that was discussed was the communication between the nurse and the patient as "developing a rapport with the patient includes being professionally friendly" and engaging in "active listening" (Lloyd and Craig, 2007). Important assessment procedures that were discussed include the core history-taking process.

First, it is important to start with introductions then utilize an order and structure which includes a history taking sequence, then asking important open questions "to ensure that nothing is missed when taking a history from a patient," then closed questions and then clarify (Lloyd and Craig, 2007). A very important strategy tool and assessment tool includes the Calgary Cambridge framework which includes structuring a history taking consultation.

This framework is useful according to the article "as it facilitated continued learning and refining of consultation skills for teacher and practioners and is an idea model for both" more and less experienced nurses (Lloyd and Craig, 2007). The five stages included in this consultation framework are: explanation and panning, aiding accurate recall and understanding, achieving a shared understanding, planning through shared decision making, and closing the consultation (Lloyd and Craig, 2007). The population that is discussed includes all patients including women, children, adults, and the elderly among other patient types.

These tools, concepts and ideas that are discussed are applicable to all patient groups. Personally, the article was very comprehensive in that it discussed a myriad of tools that are important to taking a patient history.

The specifications of the different types of history that the article went into were very comprehensive and provided the explanation and background into each individual type of history that needs to be delved into in order to form a comprehensive patient history- without each individual part to the whole, then important information can be missed.

The one thing that the authors could have improved on is how to prepare a nurse into getting a history from a patient that is not as forthcoming with information and what signs to watch for if someone is not telling them the complete information or is not willing to be forthcoming with any information. The overall message of the article did interest me but at the same time, I felt as though that the information did not really provide any real life experience.

Taking a patient information in an emergency setting, or out in the field may not fit into certain steps and that part of being a nurse is certainly something that any article cannot prepare one for. The health assessment strategy was, at the essence, beneficial as it did provide a comprehensive overview of what a patient history was, how it was important and also provided the fundamentals of what goes into taking one.

There are certain steps that and guidelines that I would most certainly adopt into practice, especially covering all the different parts of a patient history as well as building a rapport with the patient- as it seems that the more the patient trusts a nurse and the more mutual respect that is fostered between the two people, the more information is put into the history which ultimately, helps the patient's well being as well as helps the medical team responsible for the patient's care. It is.