Advance Health Assessment (NURS 6512N)

Type:  Assessment

Subject: Case study

Subject area: Nursing

Education Level: College

Length: 3  pages

Referencing style: APA

Preferred English: US  English

Spacing Option: Double

Instructions: This is the scenario (26-year-old Lebanese female living in graduate-student housing)

For this Discussion, you will take on the role of a clinician who is building a health history for a particular new patient assigned by your Instructor.

To prepare:

With the information presented in Chapter 1 of Ball et al. in mind, consider the following:

• By Day 1 of this week, you will be assigned a new patient profile by your Instructor for this Discussion. Note: Please see the “Course Announcements” section of the classroom for your new patient profile assignment.
• How would your communication and interview techniques for building a health history differ with each patient?
• How might you target your questions for building a health history based on the patient’s social determinants of health?
• What risk assessment instruments would be appropriate to use with each patient, or what questions would you ask each patient to assess his or her health risks?
• Identify any potential health-related risks based upon the patient’s age, gender, ethnicity, or environmental setting that should be taken into consideration.
• Select one of the risk assessment instruments presented in Chapter 1 or Chapter 5 of the Seidel's Guide to Physical Examination text, or another tool with which you are familiar, related to your selected patient.
• Develop at least five targeted questions you would ask your selected patient to assess his or her health risks and begin building a health history.

By Day 3 of Week 1

Post a summary of the interview and a description of the communication techniques you would use with your assigned patient. Explain why you would use these techniques. Identify the risk assessment instrument you selected and justify why it would be applicable to the selected patient. Provide at least five targeted questions you would ask the patient.

Health assessment discussion week 1

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Assigned patient profile: A Lebanese lady aged 26 years and living in graduate-student housing.

As an advanced practice nurse, it would be necessary to perform a language barrier assessment before proceeding with the health assessment interview with the Lebanese patient. It would be also important to involve interpreters where necessary so that accurate information regarding the patient health history is obtained. Effective communication with individuals from different cultures helps in promoting optimal care delivery in healthcare (Tuohy, 2019). The selection for the interview venue would be carefully done to ensure that the communication is as effective as possible. Therefore, the interview will take place in a quiet and comfortable environment that would be free from any disruptions. For example, the interview could take place in a boardroom where the interviewee will not be distracted by people or noises. As a result, the graduate-student will give a maximum attention to the discussion, thus offer well-thought-out answers to the interview questions.

The interview questions will also be straightforward and focusing only on the patient’s primary concerns of her current and previous medical history, family background, and her socialization history. A recording of comprehensive medical history of patients is an aptitude in advanced nursing care. Verification of personal identifiers would also be considered at the start of the interview. Therefore, the Lebanese female would ask how she would like to be referred to as throughout the interview sessions. The interviewee would also be asked to spell out her name or give the correct pronunciation if she could happen to have a difficult or unique name. besides, the patient’s health care needs would be identified through additional questioning regarding her previous health care access, present and past financial difficulties, her social support system, and the coping mechanism that she adopts. For example, the question about her health care access in the United States would be key identifying the level of her health needs. Most foreigners face difficulties in accessing high-quality health care needs in the U.S. due to the lack of proper documentations or being unfamiliar with how the healthcare system in the United States operates (Straiton & Myhre, 2017). Besides, the interview would also entail questioning the patient about whether she has medical insurance cover or work-related covers. Most immigrant do not get access to quality health care services due to lack of medical covers or health insurance benefits. 

The communication technique that would be used for the interview is open-ended questions. The questions will focus on mainly on answering matters that would indicate the level of health needs for the interviewee. Besides, verbal and non-verbal communication create a good rapport with the patient throughout the interview (Wu & Orlando, 2015). For instance, firm greetings in the morning would help in creating more trust in the interviewee before and throughout the interview session. Courtesy would also be observed throughout to make certain that the patient is comfortable as much as possible.  For example, the interviewee will not be interjected at any given point during the interview. Consequently, she will have adequate time to thoroughly explain herself health needs without fearing anyone.  The mentioned technique for communication would further assist in creating a friendly environment. In that case, the interviewee would become open and discuss all her health concerns.

Also Read: Nursing Capstone Project Help

The Risk Assessment Tool

The risk assessment tool used for the interview is HITS (Hurt, Insult, Threats, and Screams). It is tool that analyzes the incidences of being hurt, insulted, threatened, or screaming probably due domestic violence. 

Risk Assessment

‘HITS’, a brief screening method for domestic abuse, was chosen as the risk assessment instrument for a 26-year-old Lebanese woman living in graduate student housing. Hurt, Insult, Threaten, or Scream is the acronym for Hurt, Insult, Threaten, or Scream. Since the patient is a foreign national, the HITS method was selected for her. Because of misunderstandings and language barriers, foreign nationals can encounter anger and verbal outbursts from some members of the healthcare team. Migrants face specific obstacles to treatment, according to Lattof et al. (2018), including abuse and actual or alleged discrimination from health caregivers. Aside from prejudice by healthcare employees, there are other aspects to consider.

Target Questions

If I were to create a list of relevant questions to ask my patient in order to determine her health risks and begin compiling a health history, I could start with why she had come to see me today. Then I would inquire whether she has any cultural or spiritual traditions that I should be aware of, as well as if she is a member of any social organizations in the city. I could request about how significant her schoolwork and completion of her degree was to her. I could query whether she was feeling any stress or depression at school or in her social life. If she says yes to depression, I could like to know if she seeks therapy for it at her college. I could question whether the patient smoked cigarettes or regularly took drinks to cope with tension. 

Other questions would be will you like to be answered in a certain way? What are your current feelings? What is your key source of worry for your health? Does your family have any medical problems or diseases?

References

Lattof, S. R., Coast, E., & Leone, T. (2018). Priorities and challenges accessing health care among female migrants. Health Services Insights, 11, 1178632918804825, https://doi.org/10.1177/1178632918804825.

Straiton, M. L., & Myhre, S. (2017). Learning to navigate the healthcare system in a new country: a qualitative study. Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care, 35(4), 352–359, https://dx.doi.org/10.1080%2F02813432.2017.1397320/

Tuohy, D. (2019). Effective intercultural communication in nursing. Nursing Standard 34(2), 45–50, https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.7748/ns.2019.e11244. 

Wu, R. R., & Orlando, L. A. (2015). Implementation of health risk assessments with family health history: Barriers and benefits. Postgraduate Medical Journal 91(1079), 508, http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/postgradmedj-2014-133195.