Posted on
IS YOUR WRITTEN HISTORY FLEXIBLE ENOUGH TO INCLUDE THE UNEXPECTED?
Let your patient talk. The patient has lived with the problem for an extended time and has information that can help solve the mystery. Many times I will ask the patient, “If you had the ability to do anything you needed to do, what would you do to fix the problem?” Sometimes I have been surprised by the answer. It is the practitioner’s quest to assimilate this information and put it into a usable format to piece together the puzzle. Allow your history taking to be flexible enough to explore unexpected avenues presented by the patient.
