Which of the following statements regarding effective history taking is TRUE?
A) Use a combination of open- and closed-ended questions.
B) Never ask potentially embarrassing questions.
C) Always use open-ended questions.
D) Always use closed questions.
Question 2
Your patient is a 21-year-old football player who was struck in the lateral aspect of the left knee by another player's shoulder. The patient is in extreme pain, and the knee is significantly deformed and swollen. The pedal pulse is weak, but present, and capillary refill is less than 2 seconds. The patient is screaming at you to fix his knee. You are 10 minutes from the emergency department. You should:
A) splint the knee as found, start an IV, consider narcotic analgesia.
B) apply gentle axial traction and realign the limb, splint in alignment.
C) flex the knee to a 45-degree angle, splint in position of function.
D) start an IV, administer narcotic analgesia, apply firm axial traction until the pulse returns to normal or resistance is met, then splint.
The nurse conducts the health history as the first step in the nursing assessment
Taking a Patient’s Axillary Temperature
Taking a Patient’s Temperature with a Tympanic Thermometer
The three stages we go through to develop the ability of taking the role of the other.
The 10 Steps to Better Test-Taking
History