Health Interviewing Techniques Reflection Report - Nursing Practice

This report is a reflection on health interviewing techniques, focusing on the student's experience in learning and applying these skills in a healthcare setting. The student explores the use of Gibbs' reflective cycle to analyze the learning process, including classroom instruction, role simulations, and real-life patient interactions. The report highlights the importance of communication skills, building rapport, and incorporating personal values and professional standards, such as NMBA standards and ANSAT behavioral cues. The student evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the interviewing process, identifying challenges like patient communication difficulties and consent issues. Key factors contributing to successful interviews, such as a positive attitude, interpersonal skills, and the respect model, are discussed. The report concludes with an action plan for future practice, emphasizing the need for continued learning and skill development to enhance patient-nurse communication and overall patient care.

Running head; HEALTH INTERVIEWING 1
Health Interviewing
Student’s name
Institutional affiliation
Due date

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Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
Description...........................................................................................................................3
Feelings................................................................................................................................3
Evaluation............................................................................................................................4
Analysis...............................................................................................................................4
Conclusions..........................................................................................................................5
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................6
References............................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Medical interview is the most important diagnostic and therapeutic tool for health
workers. However, mastering the skill is not an easy task because it requires both emotional and
intellectual skills. According to Lowell, and Alshammari (2019), medical interviewing is used in
daily health practice to monitor and assess patient situation and to communicate health outcomes.
Building a rapport with a patient is necessary to facilitate the interviewing process and it relies
heavily on the development of interpersonal skills. The aim of this paper is to reflect on healthy
interviewing techniques along with NMBA professional standards and ANSAT behavioral cues
using Gibbs reflective cycle.
Description
Learning the process of healthy interviewing was divided into different parts. The first
part was done in the classroom whereby we were taught on essential communication skills,
different parts of an interview, interviewing techniques and important guidelines to facilitate the
interviewing process. The second part was to do role simulation in groups where colleagues
assumed different roles and practiced the learn skills. The last and most important part was the
real life scenarios where we had a chance of clerking patients and collecting patient history
through health interviewing. The exercise was eventful as we afterwards gathered to share
feedback.
Feelings
The exercise was conducted in line with my expectations. In my mind, I was curious to
find out how to incorporate my personal values as well as the registered nurse professional
standards to improve my interviewing skills. After the exercise, I felt overwhelmed because I did

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not encounter many challenges as compared to my colleagues. However, I was eager to clerk
more patients to sharpen my skills further. Among the challenges that I anticipated to find were
language barriers, inability of the patient to communicate and cooperation of patients such as
refusal of consent. While in the field, it was indeed evident that language was not a major issue,
but inability of patients to communicate due to their condition and lack of cooperation were
some of the major challenges encountered in the field. While conducting the interviews on
patients, I was concerned at how some of my colleagues perceived the exercise as a tedious
process based on the nature of the patients they interviewed. I was also keen to observe that some
of the patients were very cooperative and they even asked questions that were beyond our scope
of practice.
Evaluation
A lot was good about the whole experience due to the fact that the success rate of the
interviews was high. We were able to ask vital and necessary questions that were necessary for
the diagnosis of their different conditions. One of the poorly done areas was obtaining consent
from the patient as most of the colleagues complained about refusal of consent. Use of role
simulations before the actual interview was important in preparing us for the actual exercise
because it helped us understand what to ask and how to ask it. Teaching on the necessary
interpersonal skills was also excellently done as most of us were able to respect patient rights, to
establish a rapport and to promote cultural safety (Rosengren 2017).
Analysis
Our commitment and positive attitude towards the exercise was one of the factors behind
the success of the exercise. According to Shea (2016), problem oriented diagnostic interview
depends on the diagnostic skills possessed by clinicians which improves their therapeutic power.

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Prior exposure to the NMBA professional standards of practice serves an important role in
preparing students to establish and maintain professional and therapeutic relationships with
patients that are necessary for healthy interviewing (Lyons, Jones, Smith, McQuillin,
Richardson, Reid, and McClellan, 2017). In addition, ANSAT behavioral cues are also necessary
in highlighting the conduct of health workers which also assists in improving communication
between clinicians and patients. Critically analyzing nursing practice and comprehensively
conducting assessments are two important skills learn from the two set of tools that are
significant in establishing efficient communication.
Based on the experience, it was possible to identify that developing effective
communication among patients depends so much on the respect model. In the model, we were
able to learn that rapport, partnership, empathy, cultural competence, trust and empathy are
important factors in patient to nurse communications (Kathol, Andrew, Squire and Dehnel 2018).
In addition, personal skills such as emotional intelligence, intellectual humility, analytical
thinking and faith in reason are additional skills that clinicians should equip themselves with in
order to establish and cultivate healthy therapeutic relationships (DeVargas, and Stormshak,
2020). Some of the challenges that my colleagues and I faced were most arising from lack of the
interpersonal skills.
Conclusions
Based on the exercise, I was able to learn several skills to improve my experience with
patients and fellow caregivers. For instance, the success of health interviewing depends on skills
and attributes such as; respecting patient’s privacy, cultural tolerance and humility, asking open
ended questions, using simple language and listening effectively. The exercise could have been
more productive if it continued for a longer time as it could have enabled learners to master

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different skills to use in different situations. In order to handle interviews, I learnt that I needed
to attain higher levels of emotional intelligence, analytical thinking and emotional intelligence
(Andrea, and Kotowski 2017). Lastly, I was able to understand that I could have gained more if I
was actively involved in helping other health workers as I would learn from their experience to
improve on the objectivity of the questions.
Action plan
In a similar situation, I would practice more from interviewing more patients especially
those who offer challenging experiences. In addition, I would use the questions asked by
colleagues and other health workers to improve objectivity and questioning skills. During role
simulation, I would also assume the devil’s advocate and give my colleagues a challenging time
so that they can also improve their skills. In order to cultivate the required interpersonal skills, I
will learn more healthcare policies, moral and legal requirement as well as professional standards
of care.
Conclusion
Patient-nurse communication depends on a variety of factors such as place, language,
culture, and patient condition. Aspects of patient condition that affect the way they communicate
include their health status, personal beliefs and cultural attributes, the relationship with the
clinician and their level of emotional stress or pain.

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References
Andrea, J., & Kotowski, P. (2017). Using standardized patients in an undergraduate nursing
health assessment class. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 13(7), 309-313.
DeVargas, E. C., & Stormshak, E. A. (2020). Motivational interviewing skills as predictors of
change in emerging adult risk behavior. Professional Psychology: Research and
Practice, 51(1), 16.
Kathol, R. G., Andrew, R. L., Squire, M., & Dehnel, P. J. (2018). Motivational Interviewing and
Health Behavior Change in Individuals with Health Complexity. In The Integrated Case
Management Manual (pp. 85-102). Springer, Cham.
Lowell, V. L., & Alshammari, A. (2019). Experiential learning experiences in an online 3D
virtual environment for mental health interviewing and diagnosis role-playing: a
comparison of perceived learning across learning activities. Educational Technology
Research and Development, 67(4), 825-854.
Lyons, M. D., Jones, S. J., Smith, B. H., McQuillin, S. D., Richardson, G., Reid, E., &
McClellan, A. (2017). Motivation coaching training for instructional coaches: a pilot
study of motivational interviewing skills training. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in
Learning, 25(5), 548-565.
Rosengren, D. B. (2017). Building motivational interviewing skills: A practitioner workbook.
Guilford publications.

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Shea, S. C. (2016). Psychiatric interviewing E-Book: The art of understanding: A practical
guide for psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, social workers, nurses, and other
mental health professionals. Elsevier Health Sciences.