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PART TWO — Interviewing Techniques and Strategies

possibility that the current medications may or may not be totally pleasing to the patient, thus metacommunicating a genuine interest in the patient’s end of the stethoscope. A more detailed inquiry – utilizing some of the following questions – will often need to be undertaken in later sessions because of the extremely tight time constraints in an initial appointment. Even in subsequent ses- sions, these very same time demands will generally necessitate that only a few of the questions on the list can be discussed. Fortunately, through familiarization with the following types of questions the reader can make a well-informed selection of which questions, if any, may be of particular importance with a given patient, thus ensuring that a shortened explora- tion does not become an inadequate one: a. “What is your understanding of what this medication is supposed to do for you (provide the name of one of the patient’s specific medications, and subsequently do so for each medication)?” b. “Do you think it helps you?” c. “Do some of your medications seem to help better than others?” d. “Do you like your medications?” e. “Were you interested in making any changes in any of them?” TIP 2 Medication Passport Follow-Up Package

f. “Do you think that you need to be on medications?” g. “Have you ever thought of alternative treatments in addition to your medications or perhaps instead of them?”

Note the importance of first uncovering the patient’s understanding of the purposes of his or her medications. I have found that many patients do not understand the reasoning behind their medications and, hence, do not understand their importance. It is particularly important to make sure that a patient understands the reasoning behind the use of any medications that are critical to his or her recovery or relief. Without such knowledge about crucial medications (and not all medications are crucial), an elderly patient on 15 medications who grows tired of their use may choose to stop or lower the dose of a critical medication thinking that all of his or her medications are of