Chapter 5: Assessing Concerns
Overview:
- Discussion of the importance of assessing patient concerns
- Guidance through exploring concerns, especially that of psychosocial concerns in a patient
- Techniques for exploring specific symptoms
- The necessity of gaining background information on a patient while caring for them
- Provides tables, graphs and case examples of how to respond to clinical challenges
Description:
This chapter explores how to properly assess patient concerns and provides guidance on how to approach this. Techniques for exploring specific symptoms are also given and graphs, tables and case examples are provided to ensure health practitioners know how to respond to clinical challenges.
Topics:
- The importance of assessing patient concerns
- Practical concerns
- Getting started
- In-patients and out-patients
- Assessing psychosocial concerns
- Exploring concerns
- Exploring specific symptoms
- Exploration of understanding, meaning and values
- Disease burden and treatment side effects
- Background information
- Other stresses
- Relationships
- Occupational and social functioning
- Developmental history
- Use of alcohol and other substances
- Use of complementary, alternative and non-prescribed therapies
- Formal assessment measures
- Responding to clinical challenges
- Barriers to care
- Putting it all together
- Resources for health professionals and for patients
- References
- Resource sheet 5.1 Assessing concerns
Speaker / Author:
Dr Jane Turner
Jane is a psychiatrist who has been involved in the clinical care of adults with cancer and their families for the past 14 years. She has particular interests in the promotion of well being after treatment and the needs of patients with advanced cancer and their children. She has extensive experience in medical education and communication skills training and education of health professionals working in oncology on the psychosocial aspects of cancer. She was chairperson of the working group for the Clinical Practice Guidelines for the Psychosocial Care of Adults with Cancer developed by the National Cancer Control Initiative and the National Breast Cancer Centre, Australia, and has taken an active role in the implementation of these and the consumer version of these guidelines.
|
Resources 
