what questions should i ask (interviewing for NCarePlan

Nursing Students General Students

Published

hello.. im still new in this nursing course (first year student).. could you guys giv me example.. what question should i ask to identify patient's problem.. we were taught to use the 11 Gordon's (health, elimination, nutrition, etc..) to organize our data.. but then during my interview with patient i dont know what kind of open ended question should i ask.. and sometimes its not even systematic..

Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

hi, colman!

a care plan begins with assessing your patient. that is what you are doing when you interview your patient. i don't happen to have a sheet that lists out all the elements that are included in gordon's 11 functional patterns, so you are going to have to do this yourself. you just need to make a list of these 11 items on a piece of paper so you remember to ask questions related to them during your interview. what i do have is a student clinical report sheet (there is a link to it at the bottom of my reply) that you can print out. it is based on the medical model. the review of systems items on it are things you should ask the patient about and they will cover some of the things you need to assess the patient for, including the nutritional/metabolic and elimination patterns. you will have to create and think of your own questions (unless you can find a form) to go with the other 9 health patterns. you should also check the various weblinks on this particular thread on allnurses:

there may be a form there that you will find helpful for you to use.

as for the actual questions you ask, that is something you develop over time with experience. "tell me about the kinds of food you eat. how many times a day do you eat?" as the patient talks to you, you will think of more specific information you will want about the things they are telling you, so you just ask. but you start a subject with "tell me. . ." that's very open ended.

you determine the problems that your patient has by going through all the answers you got from your interview questions. you have to know what is a normal answer. your patient's problems will be the answers they gave that were not normal answers. for example, if you question the patient about "elimination" you need to know that it is normal to have a soft, formed brown stool once a day. if the patient tells you that he is usually constipated and only has a bowel movement every three days, then you've found a problem. you want to ask more about his diet and activity to see if they are contributing to this problem as part of your assessment.

you will also find information on writing a care plan and the steps you need to take in writing a care plan on these two threads:

+ Add a Comment