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...

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…