While taking a patient\'s medical history, Susan asks about his social history.
ID: 351028 • Letter: W
Question
While taking a patient's medical history, Susan asks about his social history. She asks whether he drinks alcohol. The patient immediately becomes defensive and accuses Susan of getting too personal about his affairs. How might Susan explain her reasons for asking these questions? What options are available if the patient refuses to discuss his social history with Susan? Could this opposition to questions about the social history raise suspicion in Susan's mind? What might she suspect?
She is asking questions that are being asked by the doctor; however, the patient does not know why this is Susan’s responsibility. How would you answer the questions put to you by this patient? How would you keep this patient involved in the questions without getting angry? What might Susan suspect of this patient?
You must write at least 4 paragraphs.
Explanation / Answer
Susan needs to explain to the patient that his social history is relevant to the case because it will have an essential role when his medications and other options need to be tested. The doctors usually ask a person if they consume alcohol because if the fact that alcohol is a chemical and might react with the prescribed drugs. This has to be explained by Susan if she is supposed to do her job properly.
By not providing his social history the patient will not raise suspicion in the mind of Susan as some people as just defensive in their privacy and any such behaviour cannot be categorized as suspicious. But, if even after -proper explanation the patient refuses to divulge his history, this can be considered suspicious by Susan and therefore, she might need to involve other authorities as necessary.
She might suspect that the patent is not providing his personal information due to an incident that could have happened regarding the problem or due to the fact that they have not adhered to the proper health standards that are present in the contracts by third-party healthcare providers and therefore if he discusses his negligence, he may not receive the reimbursement for his treatment in the hospital.
It is Susan's responsibility because the doctor has very little amount of time and a number of patients and they cannot perform the proper care if they are tasked with gathering this information on their own. To answer the patient’s question I would explain to them the reason behind the formality and why the doctor themselves cannot do it. If the patient refuses to answer the question even then, it might result in Susan suspecting some form of misconduct or problem that the patient has with releasing this information or any legal issues that might need the patient to not divulge the information to anyone other than the doctor themselves.
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