Patient Interview Report: Healthy Aging, Clinical Reasoning, and Care

This report details a patient interview conducted with an 89-year-old woman named Hilda, focusing on her understanding of healthy aging and impending death, framed within the clinical reasoning cycle. The interview explored Hilda's living situation, health status (including osteoarthritis and mobility limitations), and activities of daily living (ADLs). The report outlines the collection of cues using the RLT questionnaire, processing of information regarding environment, communication, diet, and sleep patterns, and reflection on the interview process. The analysis reveals Hilda's positive perception of aging despite health challenges and identifies the need for a community care worker, occupational therapy, and dietary guidance. The report concludes with recommendations for improving Hilda's quality of life and a discussion on the application of the clinical reasoning cycle in patient assessment and care planning, supported by relevant references.

Running head: PATIENT INTERVIE
Patient interview
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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PATIENT INTERVIEW
Introduction:
The clinical reasoning cycle provides the nurses with the opportunity to analyze the
patient situation, collect cues of care needs, identify the care needs, process information, and
identification of care priority based on which the interventions will be provided and the nurses
will also be able to reflect on their own practice to understand the mistakes that they are making
and how it can be rectified (Morton, Fontaine, Hudak & Gallo, 2017). This assignment will take
assistance section 1, 2, 3 and 8 of clinical reasoning cycle in order to interview a particular
elderly patient and understand their understanding healthy aging and impending death.
Patient situational analysis:
For this interview I had the opportunity to interact with a 89 year old patient named Hilda
who is living with her husband and children in her house. Hilda is a catholic and she was
suffering from pain in the right knee and big toe in her left foot. The primary data about her
revealed that she is mobility restricted due to acute osteoarthritis and pain in the knee, and hence
I decided to conduct the interview in her own house so that the environment will be comfortable
for her and she will be able to relax and participate completely in the interview procedure. When
I approached the house she welcome to me inside with a warm smile. Her living room was
slightly cluttered and she had been walking with walking support. Hence with the primary
assessment office of her we agreed to setup the interview in the outside porch where arranged for
two chairs in her garden setting for het to sit comfortably and began with the interview. The tools
utilized in the interview were a voice recorder to record her speech, RLT questionnaire for the
interview, patient assessment data sheet, and pen.

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PATIENT INTERVIEW
Collection of cues:
The next step of the critical reasoning cycle is collection of cues so that the information
can be sorted, processed and synthesized to arrive at the most probable care needs of the patient.
Hence I attempted to collect the dues and required information from Hilda as per the
questionnaire of RLT model I had taken with me. First and foremost, I attended to help Hilda
understand the purpose of this interview and how it will help him understand the concept of
healthy aging and whether she is following the required activities to promote healthy aging.
According to the Bacsu et al. (2012), taking consent before approaching the patients with any
care activity or patient assessment is a very important aspect of healthcare law and legislations.
Hence, the consenting procedure was extremely important and I made a point to help her
understand the interview and the questionnaire crucial detail and also taken her permission to
record the entire interview in the speech recorder. Non verbal communication traits are very
important while conducting any interview with the older patients (Kerr, Rosenberg & Frank,
2012). hence I attempted to maintain a comfortable and get professional body language while
communicating with the patient all the while maintaining eye contact and responding with
compassionate and empathetic phrases as she continued to share the information with me.
According to the Lima, Newall, Jordan, Hamilton and Kinney (2016), while sharing their life
details with the healthcare staff it is very natural for the elderly patients to become
uncomfortable and embarrassed while talking to a complete stranger. Hence I begin with sharing
my own personal details my background my educational qualifications my journey as a
Healthcare provider and my personal perception of healthy life and aging. This immediately
helped him to become comfortable with me and helped him share her own personal details with

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PATIENT INTERVIEW
me with much more ease. Researchers are of the opinion that it is crucial for the care
professionals to maintain basic communication comfort and decency while communicating with
elderly patients (Odell, 2015). Hence, during the entire course of interview I made honest effort
to remain calm and patient while speaking to Hilda and repeated to him my questions as many
times as he required so that he understood what she is being asked and can provide accurate
information.
Processing of the information:
In this step of the clinical reasoning cycle analyzing the information is very important so
that care priorities can be identified and adequate interventions can be applied. RLT
questionnaire mandates asking information regarding her environment, her communication,
breathing, eating and drinking, eliminating, personal cleansing and dressing, body temperature,
mobilizing capabilities, working and playing, expressing her sexuality, sleeping and lastly about
dying. Regarding the safe environment the patient was asked whether he is able to prevent
accidents have from happening or if she was under any risk from infections, if he was aware of
safe taking or receiving any medication, whether she was under any stress and anxiety, idea of
safe living and availability of resources. Hilda explained that she attempted to keep her house
very clean so that there are no risk of infection or any other accidents from happening however
head pain and hand knee respected her from working out too much and she also had unsteady
gait due to the pain in her knee. Regarding ADLs, Hilda was asked whether she could actively
perform the personal hygiene such as bathing, washing and dental care. Hilda stated that she is
very able to walk due to her paining me and Arthritis however with the help of a children she is

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PATIENT INTERVIEW
able to complete activities of daily living also when her children are not present at home she
suffers from not being able to complete her activities of daily living and the and cleanliness and
lack of hygiene bothers her. In case of communication factors the patient was asked from the
questionnaire whether she is able to communicate effectively, her native language understanding
and that she is experiencing a acute pain or speaking disability. Hilda had no communicational
complications however she had acute pain in her knee due to her arthritis and arthritis problems.
For her dietary patterns, she was asked whether she understands what is a healthy diet, her
current diet, Whether he is capable of preparing a nutritious diet for herself, and her cultural
understanding of healthy eating and drinking. Hilda stated that she understand what a healthy
diet is however she has always found of spicy food health children to indulge her with spicy
food. And you too my age and paining me she is not able to cook at her home so most of the
days they rely on takeout food. Lastly, she was asked about her normal sleeping and waking
routine followed by her idea and concepts regarding death and dying. Her sleep patterns were
fine with 8-9 hours of sleep throughout the night and she had an uncertain take to death.
Reflection and conclusion:
Reflecting on a procedure. I would like to mention that health had a very positive
understanding of aging. She was living a happy life with her husband and 3 children and was
happy however her health restrictions such as her paining knee and big toe restricted her mobility
and her age derived weakness and fatigue restricted her from participating in the activities of
daily living completely. Her knee pain and big toe increased her risk for fall, and as her husband
is also very old and her children are generally out of the house, she will require the assistance of
a full-time community care worker who will not only health held up with activities of a daily
living but will also help in personal care (Sørensen & Brahe, 2014). Hilda will also require

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PATIENT INTERVIEW
assistance of occupational therapist and Arthritis care plan for her pain so that she can be
relieved from the acute pain that she has been feeling. The family will also required pension
from a dietician who will help them with nutritious healthy food habits (Sasaki, Torigoshi &
Kondo, 2018).
Conclusion:
On a concluding note it has to mention that this assignment give me a excellent
opportunity to explore and understand the concept of healthy aging with respect to the clinical
reasoning cycle which is important tool in patient assessment and care designing. And with
respect to the recommendations I have an outline in the reflection it can be hope that held and her
family can be able to live a healthy and content life along with a clear and positive concept of
healthy aging.

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PATIENT INTERVIEW
References:
Bacsu, J. R., Jeffery, B., Johnson, S., Martz, D., Novik, N., & Abonyi, S. (2012). Healthy aging
in place: Supporting rural seniors’ health needs. Online Journal of Rural Nursing and
Health Care, 12(2), 77-87. Retrieved from
http://rnojournal.binghamton.edu/index.php/RNO/article/view/52
Kerr, J., Rosenberg, D., & Frank, L. (2012). The role of the built environment in healthy aging:
community design, physical activity, and health among older adults. Journal of Planning
Literature, 27(1), 43-60. Doi: 10.1177/0885412211415283
Lima, S., Newall, F., Jordan, H. L., Hamilton, B., & Kinney, S. (2016). Development of
competence in the first year of graduate nursing practice: a longitudinal study. Journal of
advanced nursing, vol 72(4), pp 878-888. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.12874
Mauk, K. L., & Mauk, K. L. (2017). Gerontological nursing: Competencies for care. Jones &
Bartlett Learning. Retrieved from https://www.jopan.org/article/S0001-2092(09)00689-
9/pdf
Morton, P. G., Fontaine, D., Hudak, C. M., & Gallo, B. M. (2017). Critical care nursing: a
holistic approach (p. 1056). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Retrieved from :
http://www.just.edu.jo/ar/CoursesAndLabs/Advanced%20Adult%20Health%20Nursing
%20(Theory)_NUR%20415/NUR%20415.doc
Odell, M. (2015). Detection and management of the deteriorating ward patient: an evaluation of
nursing practice. Journal of clinical nursing, vol 24(1-2), pp 173-182.
https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12655

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Robert, R. R., Tilley, D. S., & Petersen, S. (2014). A power in clinical nursing practice: concept
analysis on nursing intuition. Medsurg Nursing, 23(5), 343-350. retrieved from:
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE
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Salminen, H., Zary, N., Björklund, K., Toth-Pal, E., & Leanderson, C. (2014). Virtual patients in
primary care: developing a reusable model that fosters reflective practice and clinical
reasoning. Journal of medical Internet research, 16(1). Doi: 10.2196/jmir.2616
Sasaki, K., Torigoshi, C., & Kondo, M. (2018). Requirements for promoting the transition of
aging patients with cognitive and physical disorders to home care: A new case analysis
design. Clinical Nursing Studies, 6(3), 79. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5430/cns.v6n3p79
Sørensen, E. E., & Brahe, L. (2014). Interruptions in clinical nursing practice. Journal of clinical
nursing, vol 23(9-10), pp 1274-1282. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.12329