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Nurse-Patient Interview

Augustine Uketui

Lethbridge College

NSG 1610: Assessing Health and Wholeness

Shannon Seitz

October 13, 2023

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The conversation between the nurse and the patient was professional. This is because

the nurse followed the basic elements of a professional interview such as providing her name

and professional designation to the patient while stating the purpose of the interview (Gregory

et al., 2020). The nurse also observed other elements of a professional interview such as

ensuring privacy for the interview in a quiet environment, maintaining appropriate distance

during the interview, and seating at an eye level equal-status position with the client (Jarvis &

Eckhardt, 2023).

The purpose of the communication was clear as the nurse indicated her reason for the

interview by telling the client that she has come to learn about her health and followed up by

asking the client the reason for her visit.

I felt that the nurse did not genuinely care about the health status of the client because

she ignored the client’s key concern of acute stomach pain even when the signs and symptoms

were evident during the interaction. According to Arnold and Boggs (2019), a key component of

a clinician’s ability to show concern towards the client is to actively listen to the client, provide

responses that seek to expand the meaning of a client's message, prioritize the client's key

concerns, and empathize with the client. Gregory et al. (2020) also recommends that data

collection during interview should depend on the patient’s presenting symptoms. Unfortunately,

in this instance the nurse failed to redirect the interview to a focused interview that will explore

the client's key concern of stomach pain. Furthermore, the nurse’s hurried questions and

glancing at her watch during the interview shows a lack of concern and violates the

recommendations of a proper nurse-client interaction proposed by Jarvis and Eckhardt (2023).

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According to Jarvis and Eckhardt (2023), the use of clarification is a therapeutic

communication technique a nurse can use to gain more understanding of a patient’s message.

In this instance, the nurse utilized this technique effectively by allowing the patient to describe

the pain further.

The use of mostly closed-ended questions by the nurse underplayed the client’s health

concern and is inappropriate for a non-emergency interview (Gregory et al., 2020). Gregory et

al. (2020) and Perry et al. (2020), opine that using open-ended questioning technique allow

patients to fully express themselves. Jarvis and Eckhardt (2023), further suggest the use of other

therapeutic communication techniques such as facilitation, silence, and summary to improve

the communication process. During the interview, the nurse could have used facilitation to

probe deeper into the patient’s description of her stomach pain by using words such as “please

continue”, she could have used silence to enable the patient to emphasize more on the pain

while giving herself the time to process the information provided by the patient before asking

the next question, and lastly, she could have used summary to review her understanding of the

description of the pain.

Furthermore, the nurse’s use of false reassuring words such as “don’t worry about it, it

will all work out”, trivializes the patient’s concern and stifles the communication process (Jarvis

& Eckhardt, 2023; Gregory et al., 2020). According to Jarvis and Eckhardt (2023), a proper way

to close an interview would be to ask the patients if they have any questions or would like to

provide any more information.

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References

Arnold, E. C., & Boggs, K. U. (2019). Interpersonal Relationships: Professional Communication Skills for

Nurses (8th ed.) Elsevier.

Gregory, D., Raymond, C., Patrick, L., & Stephen, T. (2020). Fundamentals: Perspectives on the Art and

Science of Canadian Nursing (2nd ed.). Wolters Kluwer.

Jarvis, C., & Eckhardt, A. (2023). Physical Examination & Health Assessment (4th ed.). Elsevier.

Perry, A. G., Potter, P. A., Ostendorf, W. R., & Cobbett, S. L. (2020). Canadian Clinical Nursing Skills &

Techniques (1st ed.). Elsevier.