Patient Pathway —
Training activity: 5

Details

Conduct and report a clinical interview, and take a history of a complex patient, leading to clear establishment of a goal setting for either a clinical assessment or intervention delivery

Type

Developmental training activity (DTA)

Evidence requirements

Evidence the activity has been undertaken by the trainee​.

Reflection on the activity at one or more time points after the event including learning from the activity and/or areas of the trainees practice for development.

An action plan to implement learning and/or to address skills or knowledge gaps identified.

Considerations

• Adapting interview style for an individual patient
• Patient centred care and support
• Contribution of patient’s unique circumstances
• Information from accompanying family members or carers
• Patient priorities to inform assessment plan and intervention goal setting.
• Potential clinical management strategies
• Biopsychosocial (BPS) frameworks, for example the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)
• Critical evaluation and weighting of information gathered
• Format and content of written report to meet needs of audience(s)

Reflective practice guidance

The guidance below is provided to support reflection at different time points, providing you with questions to aid you to reflect for this training activity. They are provided for guidance and should not be considered as a mandatory checklist. Trainees should not be expected to provide answers to each of the guidance questions listed.

Before action

• What are the key elements of a comprehensive clinical interview and history taking for a complex patient?
  • How will you establish clear and measurable goals for a subsequent clinical assessment or intervention?
  • What communication and interpersonal skills do you need to utilise?
• What do you hope to learn about effectively interviewing complex patients and gathering relevant history?
  • What insights do you expect to gain about goal setting in a clinical context?
  • What prior experience do you have with patient interaction and history taking?
• How will you prepare for the interview (e.g., reviewing available information, planning key questions)?
  • What techniques will you use to build rapport and ensure effective communication?
  • How will you document the interview and history?
  • How will you work collaboratively with the patient to establish goals?
  • What potential challenges might you encounter during the interview, and how will you prepare for them?
  • How do you feel about conducting clinical interviews?

In action

• During the clinical interview, how are you building rapport with the patient and guiding the conversation to gather relevant information?
• What decisions are you making about the types of questions to ask and how to probe for details while being sensitive to the patient’s needs?
• As you gather the history, are you forming initial hypotheses about the patient’s condition and potential goals? How is this influencing your subsequent questions?

On action

• Summarise the key information gathered during the clinical interview and history taking.
  • What goals were established?
• What did you learn about conducting clinical interviews and taking patient histories?
  • How effective were your communication and questioning techniques?
  • What did you learn about goal setting with patients?
  • Were there any challenges in building rapport or eliciting necessary information?
  • What did you learn from these?
  • How did you adapt your questioning and approach based on the patient’s responses and demeanour?
  • How does effective interviewing and goal setting contribute to patient-centred care?
• What aspects of your interviewing skills or history-taking techniques could be enhanced?
  • What further understanding of patient communication would be beneficial?
  • How will you approach future clinical interviews?
  • What specific actions will you take to improve your interviewing and goal-setting abilities?
  • What resources or feedback would be helpful?

Beyond action

• Have you conducted other clinical interviews and history-taking sessions since this DTA?
  • How has your ability to elicit relevant information and build rapport with patients developed?
  • Have you reviewed your previous reports and considered if your documentation has improved?
• How has this experience influenced your communication skills in a clinical setting?
  • Has your ability to identify patient goals and tailor assessment or intervention strategies improved?
  • Has your understanding of the importance of patient history in informing clinical decision-making deepened?
• What skills in communication, patient assessment, and goal setting did you develop that will be crucial for autonomous clinical practice?
  • How has this experience shaped your patient-centred approach to care?
  • What actions will you take to further develop your clinical interviewing and history-taking skills?

Relevant learning outcomes

#	Outcome
# 2	Outcome Communicate clearly and effectively with a range of stakeholders to inform and educate.
# 3	Outcome Conduct a patient episode from referral to treatment including identification and prescription of healthcare technology.
# 5	Outcome Appraise patient experiences, requirements and goals across specialist service areas.