Question

why is it important for the nurse educator to learned the patient background first

Answer 1

It is important to learn the patient background because of the following reasons:

• Name of the patient is used for identifying the patient in a ward
• Age will tell us about the age related disease like child- congenital disease, old age - diabetes, hypertension, cancer,etc,
• sex of the patient will tell us about the disease that are more common in males (klinefelter syndrome, lung cancer haemophilia etc ) in females ( breast cancer, turners syndrome rheumatic chorea)
• Place where the patient is coming from is important because some places maybe endemic for some diseases like malaria, thalassemia, hiv, etc.
• Personal history like tobacco chewing, alcohol intake, drug abuse, sleep disturbances, appetite are all important as it may affect the drug that are given for the main treatment as some some drug interactions may happen with alcohol consumption and smoking.
• Past history like any previous similar illness in the past is important as the present disease maybe a relapse. Other past history like surgeries is also important. And presence of disease like diabetes , hypertension, COPD, asthma, cardiovascular disease epilepsy is important to note as it may interfere in prescription of drugs and any surgical interventions.
• Family history is equally important because some disease run in families like hereditary disease, cancer, diabetes, etc.
• Socioeconomic status of the patient is important because it tells if the patient could could afford for the treatment and surgeries. It also tells us about if the patient could afford for the healthy food to maintain good health.