Although preventive care service provision has a general guideline, to offer evidence-based practice, the medical practitioners are under obligation to ask the patient the following questions, among others.
The family history concerning particular diseases like cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and other genetic diseases. In this regards, the nursing officer would establish the susceptibility of the patient to these conditions. Diagnosing of family members with such conditions may occur along the way and, therefore, it is important the nurse gets to know about it every time the patient visits the clinic.
Moreover, the nurse should ask about exercise and weight management aspects, including how many days/hours the client is active, the type of activities, and other related issues.
On top of that, the nurse needs to ask about dieting. It is important for the patient to monitor the calories intake all the time.
The nurse needs to ask over-all lifestyle questions with keen interests in stress-inducing activities to guide the patient cope with it. Other aspects such as smoking are also important.
The nurse needs to ask about the difficulties and risks the patient undergoes due to the previous measures on disease prevention. Shared decision-making is critical for the success of the preventive service (Wilkinson, 2012 p.8), and asking about the difficulties the clients face facilitates it.
Age and gender are central areas of concern because children, men, and women are not susceptible to similar illnesses. The U.S. Center for Medicare & Medicaid (2016) noted that most people aged 15 and 65 are at an increased risk of contracting HIV. At the same time, adults between 55 and 80 years were at higher risk of developing lung cancer if they smoke. Therefore, age is a significant fact when profiling risk. A similar case occurs with Gender. Men and women have different healthy needs. As a result, the caregivers needs to come up with differentiated health education contents, objectives and methods for particular groups.
The age of the patient would determine the choice and discipline towards healthy living. According to Healthy People 2020 (2017), during the early and middle childhood, children develop health literacy, the ability to make right decisions, self-discipline, feeding habits, and conflict negotiation and, therefore the developmental milestone is critical in coming up with preventive measures and methods of teaching them.
Some of the risk factors associated with health promotion include obesity, inadequate exercise, smoking, and excessive alcohol consumption, among others.
References
Healthy People 2020. (2017). Early and Middle Childhood. Retrieved on February 2, 2017, from https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/early-and-middle-childhood
U.S. Center for Medicare & Medicaid (2016). Preventive care benefits for adults. Retrieved on February 2, 2017, from https://www.healthcare.gov/preventive-care-adults/
Wilkinson J, Bass C, Diem S, Gravley A, Harvey L, Hayes R, Johnson K, and, Vincent P. (2012). Health Care Guideline: Preventive Services for Adults Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement. Preventive Services for Adults. Retrieved on February 2, 2017, from https://goo.gl/MqjOqd
