Week 5 #2 - the chatterbox

Today i was asked to perform a subjective and objective assessment on a patient. As my supervisor has been away on leave, this is the first subjective ive done with her since my mid-placement mark, so i wanted to show how that i have taken her suggestions on board made improvements. One of her comments was that i tended to ramble and ask long winded questions, which i totally agreed with as i know no matter how hard i try i struggle to be concise! Anyway i wrote down the process of my questions incase i lost track and so i remembered to keep all the similar questions together so as to make it easier for the patient, especially an elderly patient that may not be the best historian. I was begining my subjective and started asking questions about his home when i realised that he two was a rambler and like to talk a lot and go off track. This started to make it hard for me to know when he was answering the question and to pick out the important and relevant bits. I then realised that this assessment might take a long time if i let him continue to talk, but i didn't want to be rude. I began to ask more leading questions, becuase i knew a bit of background from his notes so that i could direct him in the way i wanted his answer, and asked him questions that didn't need him to give me a broad answer, where he might go off track. I found this very helpful as i managed to get all the answers i needed, without being rude and going over time. I think i have also improved with bing more concise with my questioning, and keeping all the same kind of questions together. I hope my supervisor was also able to see the difference!