Promoting Healthy Ageing: An Interview with an Older Patient

This essay presents a health assessment conducted through an interview with a 68-year-old patient, Mrs. Brown, focusing on her concept of healthy living and potential health vulnerabilities. The clinical reasoning cycle was employed to collect and process information, linking data to symptoms and identifying care priorities. The interview covered various aspects of Mrs. Brown's life, including her living environment, communication skills, diet, activities of daily living (ADLs), and mobility. The assessment revealed potential risks such as falls due to clutter, communication decline due to isolation, obesity from unhealthy food choices, difficulty with ADLs due to restricted mobility, and loss of independence. Based on these findings, recommendations were made for social care workers, speech therapists, and physiotherapists. The essay reflects on the effectiveness of the clinical reasoning cycle and nursing principles in conducting the interview and establishing a therapeutic relationship with the patient.

Running head: INTERVIEW WITH OLD PATIENT
INTERVIEW WITH OLD PATIENT
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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INTERVIEW WITH OLD PATIENT
Introduction:
Clinical reasoning cycle is an effective framework by which healthcare professionals can
collect information about the patient, process the information, link the data collected with the
symptoms, identify the care priorities and thereby establish successful action plans (LaBionbo et
al., 2017). In this assignment, certain steps of the clinical reasoning cycle will be utilised for
taking proper interviews with an old patient on his concept of healthy living and thereby
recognise if he is vulnerable to any potential or acute problems.
Considering the patient situation:
Mrs. Brown who is aged 68 years old was my interviewee. I had to go to her home since she had
lost her mobility. I had to ensure that the environment where she would be giving me the
interview is selected by her so that she feels comfortable and does not feel stressed. After I had
entered in her house, I saw she lives in a two bedroom flat with her son. Her son, James was out
on an office trip and was not present. I saw that there was lot of clutters on the road and she was
at a high risk of falling. She decided that her garden would be the best spot as it is not only quiet
but also helps her to relax under the open sky. I fixed up two chairs round the centre table that
was already present in the garden. I had taken a voice recorder machine so that I could record her
speech. I placed it on the table. I had also taken both the forms of RLT Appendix 3as well as
Appendix 4 Sample Questions so that even if I get disrupted I can take help from the printouts. I
compassionately introduced myself and discussed the topic on which I was about to interview
her. While interviewing her, I noted down the information in pen and paper also besides recoding
it on the tape recorder. After the interview was over, I opened up the RLT Appendix 3 and
quickly noted down the actual and potential barriers immediately. Therefore, I collected data

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properly. Moreover, I also noted down the environmental settings in her house so that I can also
gain ideas about her conditions of living.
Collection of cues and information:
While taking interviews, I tried to maintain a body language that is confident so that the
woman can trust me and does not feel demotivated. Before starting the interview, I engaged in an
informal conversation where I revealed my background, my position in the healthcare centres,
my hobbies and many others. Researchers are of the opinion when interviewers disclose
information about themselves, it helps the interviewees to feel comfortable and know whom they
are talking (Robert et al., 2014). If they develop the idea that they are talking to strangers, they
fail to disclose different information about themselves, as they feel anxious about the privacy of
the information. I ensured that the interview information would be kept confidential. Through
effective communication and rapport building, I saw that she had started trusting me and was
comfortable in my presence. Following that, I asked her questions and was very attentive. As she
was quite old, she was talking very softly and slowly and it was becoming difficult for me to
understand. However, I could not ask her to repeat, as it would affect her dignity and autonomy
(Dicenso et al., 2014). Therefore, I was very attentive to her speech. My attentive nature
impressed her and she was very pleased with the way I conducted the interview. I did not allow
myself to become impatient during the conversation due to her talking slowly. Rather, I helped
her to complete her sentences and respected her capability to speak.
Processing information:
After analysing the information about her ideas on healthy aging, I realised that she had
moderate amount of knowledge about healthy aging. When I asked her several questions like is

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whether she feels herself at safe from any infections regarding her knowledge about her idea
about the maintenance of a safe environment in her living rooms, she stated that she has good
idea about it. She told me that she tries to keep her windows open on sunny days so that her
house does not remain damp. She knows that she can maintain healthy life if she is able to reside
in hygienic homes. However, when i asked her question like whether she fails herself safe from
accidents she was confused. One thing that I noticed is that she has clutters on the pathway of
walking. Therefore, the potential problem is that she may be subjected to fall that may affect her
mobility (Morton et al., 2017). Secondly, in assessing her communication skill that whether she
could communicate effectively and whether her speech was clear or hard to understand, it was
noticed that she was very hard to hear and talks very slowly. She said that there is no one to talk
to in her house. With such continuance of days, she might lose her zeal to speak or may also lose
her voice (Anderson et al., 2015). Therefore, she might be referred to communicate activity
centres or to speech therapists so that she can maintain her communication effectively. The third
field is eating and drinking where I wanted to know what she knows about diet. She said that she
has her lunch by delivery from nearby restaurants and in the night, her son cooks for her but she
did not knew the side effects of this. Since she is having outside calorific food, she may develop
obesity that is potential problem. She is a bit overweight now and therefore she is at high risk
(Sorensen & Brahe, 2014). In the fourth domain, I asked her whether she can conduct ADLS
properly , it is seen that she is not always able to take her bath properly on certain days when she
does not feel like. She says it becomes very difficult for her to undertake ADLS properly due to
her restricted mobility. Therefore, she may develop infections if she does not take bath properly.
Therefore, social care workers should be fixed for her (Lim et al., 2016). In the fifth part that is
mobility, she is also seen to be have restricted mobility and therefore she may lose the capability

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to maintain her independence nature. Therefore, a physiotherapist should be allocated for her
(Karavasiladau et al., 2014).
Reflection:
The clinical reasoning cycle, the RLT Appendix 3 as well as Appendix 4 Sample
Questions had hugely supported me in creating a framework for effective interviewing and
collecting cues. These steps helped me to understand the exact ways by which I would ask the
patient questions that would help me in getting the answers that I wanted. Moreover, I observed
that with the application of proper nursing principles, ethics and values that had helped to get
engage with effective communication with that of the patients. I was able to develop therapeutic
relationship with the patient and hence I became successful in taking proper interview with the
patient.
Conclusion:
This essay gave me a scope to take interviews of old people where I get to know their
knowledge about healthy living. The clinical reasoning cycle had helped me to develop ideas
about how to collect information and hence try their best to develop ideas about the potential and
actual barriers that would take.

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INTERVIEW WITH OLD PATIENT
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