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Summary
This article explores patient consultation with specific reference to the Calgary-Cambridge consultation guide. It provides an overview of history taking and explores the patient's perspective during the consultation. The article also discusses the skills required to provide information effectively. In addition, the article addresses 'safety netting' and emphasises the interdependence of communication and consultation skills.
Keywords
Communication skills; History taking; Patient consultation
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Aims and intended learning outcomes
This article aims to give nurses and other Healthcare professionals an insight into the Calgary-Cambridge consultation guide. After reading this article you should be able to:
* Discuss the factors that need to be considered when preparing for a consultation.
* Recognise the key skills required to initiate the consultation and identify the patient's problem.
* Describe the areas of information that need to be covered to take an accurate history.
* Outline effective strategies for providing information to patients to aid accurate recall and understanding.
* Discuss the factors that need to be addressed in 'safety netting'.
Introduction
A consultation is a private and intimate interaction between clinician and patient. It assists in the diagnosis of health problems in clinical settings and has traditionally been the domain of medical practitioners. However, as nurses expand the boundaries of their practice in areas of first contact care, non-medical prescribing and specialist roles, effective consultation and history-taking skills are becoming increasingly important.
A consultation provides an opportunity to establish a therapeutic relationship with patients and listen to their story with an unfolding of symptoms, problems and feelings. However, patients tell their stories in different, usually unstructured, ways (Clark 1999). The use of a model can help to provide structure and give direction to a consultation. Without the use of a model, practitioners may omit to ask key questions and overlook information that is essential for diagnostic accuracy and safe practice (Clark 1999).
There are many consultation models but one that can be applied to most clinical settings is the Calgary-Cambridge guide...