Clinical communication skills - phrases you could use in the Cambridge-Calgary model for information gathering
Introduce yourself
Set agenda and
obtain consent
Check comfortable
Presenting complaint
Opening
question
So could I start by asking you, what problems brought
you into hospital today?
Summarise
and screen
So you've told me x and y. Have you noticed
anything else?
Screen
once more or until she says nothing else
Have you noticed any other problems?
Are there any other problems that you would like to
tell me about
HPC
So can you take me back to the beginning from when
the problems first started?
Obtain
chronology
Empathy
statement - this sounds like it must have been
difficult for you
Take
each item in turn
Can you tell me more about that?
Systems review
I'd like to ask you a few more specific questions if
that's okay
ICE
So, before you came in did you have any ideas of what
might be going on?
Is there anything that’s worrying you at all?
What where you hoping to happen by the end of the
consultation?
PMH
I'd like to ask about your PMH
Have you ever had any surgeries at all?
Have you ever had to come to hospital before?
Is there anything that you see your GP regularly for?
DH
Medication
Smoking
Alcohol
Social history
Do you live at home on your own?
And at home are you quite independent/ do you manage?
Do you work?
How has all this been affecting your work?
FH
Are there any conditions that run in your family?
Do you have any brothers or sisters that suffer from
anything?