Purpose Of Health Assessment

The purpose of the health assessment is to look at the patient overall aspect of their health. By recording the patient’s history (past, family, social, and environment), review of systems, nutritional and psychological data, this can help identify any health problems and ways to treat and prevent the problem. I had the opportunity to interview a close friend of mine with his permission. During the interview, not only was I able to learn more about my patient, but, I also notice the communication techniques that I use which are empathy, facial expression, and asking relevant question. “Empathy is the ability to understand and accept another person’s reality, accurately perceive feelings… (Potter, 2013).” When my patient stated that both of his grandmothers had dementia which in turn means his parents and his self also have a chance of getting dementia; I used empathy by stating “It must be hard to know what might be ahead.” Because I was able to see the situation from the patient view it helped the patient to open up more about his fears. By knowing the patient’s fears, it will benefit the care team if the patient were to be diagnosed with

This is a technique that I need to work on as sometimes I am unaware of my facial expression and the person speaking might take it the wrong way. During the assessment, I tried my best to keep my facial expression the same, laughing and smiling at jokes when appropriate. The patient noticed my facial expression as a way of approving of what he was saying and continued speaking without holding back. A way it could inhibit the conversation is when I made an annoyed face because my patient was distracted with his phone because he was getting bored. After he saw my face, the patient started to give me one word responses. A way I could have avoided using the inappropriate facial is by asking the patient to refrain from using his