| Course | NR 302 Health Assessment I |
|---|---|
| Week | 2 |
| Paper type | Health history interview |
| Length | About 1,110 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | BSN (pre-licensure) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NR 302 Week 2
Health History Interview With a 58-Year-Old Retired Bus Mechanic: Two Vocabularies Side by Side
Student Name
College of Nursing, Chamberlain University
NR 302: Health Assessment I
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Health History Interview With a 58-Year-Old Retired Bus Mechanic: Two Vocabularies Side by Side
How This Record Is Written
This is a record of a health history interview with Mr. G., a 58-year-old retired bus mechanic who lives next door to the student and volunteered for the assignment. His wife joined us halfway through and contributed a couple of observations of her own. Every line begins with its source in brackets: [Mr. G.] for what he said, [Mrs. G.] for what his wife said, and [Reading] for information the student added from the course textbook. Where Mr. G. used an ordinary phrase, it is kept in quotation marks, and where the student knows the technical term, it appears after it. Nothing in the record is a finding from an examination, because no examination was done; it is all history. The organization follows the components of a complete health history described in the course text (Jarvis & Eckhardt, 2024).
Reason for the Interview and Main Concern
[Mr. G.] His main concern: "my right knee gives out on stairs" (a sensation of the knee buckling, sometimes called giving way).
[Mr. G.] It started "about a year ago, maybe more," after he retired and "stopped moving around so much."
[Mr. G.] The knee "aches after I walk the dog" (activity-related knee pain), rated 4 out of 10 after walking, 1 out of 10 at rest.
[Mr. G.] It is "stiff when I get up in the morning, for maybe ten minutes" (morning stiffness, short duration).
[Mr. G.] It "sounds like crunching" when he goes up stairs (crepitus, the textbook term for a grating sound or feeling in a joint).
[Mrs. G.] She has seen him "grab the railing" on the stairs at home more often in the past few months.
[Mr. G.] What helps: "ice and a couple of ibuprofen." What makes it worse: "stairs, and kneeling in the garden."
[Mr. G.] He has not fallen but says he "came close" twice.
Past Health
[Mr. G.] "High blood pressure" (hypertension) for about 10 years, "on a pill for it."
[Mr. G.] "Borderline sugar" two years ago; his doctor told him to "cut back on bread" (the student is not sure whether this was prediabetes; recorded as reported).
[Mr. G.] Surgery: "fixed a hernia" on the left side in his forties (hernia repair).
[Mr. G.] Injuries: "hurt my back lifting a transmission" at work 20 years ago; off work for a month.
[Mr. G.] Hospital stays: only for the hernia surgery.
[Mr. G.] Shots: a flu shot every fall; "the pneumonia one last year"; not sure about tetanus.
Medicines and Allergies
[Mr. G.] Lisinopril, "the blood pressure one," once a morning; he read the dose off the bottle as 20 milligrams.
[Mr. G.] Ibuprofen, "two tablets" (he read 200 milligrams each) "a few times a week" for the knee.
[Mr. G.] A daily vitamin from the grocery store.
[Mr. G.] Allergies: "penicillin, I broke out in hives as a kid." No food allergies he knows of.
[Reading] The student noted, from the course text, that regular use of anti-inflammatory pain relievers can raise blood pressure and affect the kidneys, and wrote this down as a question for the instructor rather than as advice to Mr. G.
Family History
[Mr. G.] Father: died at 70 of "a bad heart"; "had sugar" (diabetes).
[Mr. G.] Mother: 84, living, "bad knees and hips her whole life," "had one hip replaced."
[Mr. G.] Brother: 61, "had a stent put in" three years ago (a procedure to open a heart artery).
[Mr. G.] Sister: 55, healthy as far as he knows.
[Mr. G.] Children: two daughters, 30 and 27, healthy.
Review of Systems
[Mr. G.] General: "I've put on maybe 15 pounds since I retired." No fevers.
[Mr. G.] Eyes: wears reading glasses; last eye exam "a couple of years ago."
[Mr. G.] Ears: "my wife says I don't hear her"; [Mrs. G.] confirmed she has to repeat things, especially in the car.
[Mr. G.] Breathing: "fine," no cough, quit smoking 25 years ago after about 15 years.
[Mr. G.] Heart: no chest pain, no swelling in his ankles.
[Mr. G.] Stomach and bowels: "heartburn if I eat late"; bowels regular.
[Mr. G.] Urine: gets up "once, maybe twice a night" to urinate (nocturia).
[Mr. G.] Muscles and joints: right knee as above; left knee "not as bad"; no hand or hip pain.
[Mr. G.] Nerves: no numbness or dizziness.
[Mr. G.] Mood: "retirement's been an adjustment," but he does not feel down most days.
Daily Life
[Mr. G.] He walks the dog twice a day, about 15 minutes each, gardens in the summer, and watches television most evenings. He drinks "a beer or two" on weekends and two cups of coffee a day. He sleeps about seven hours. His house has two floors and he sleeps on the upper one, and he said that "the stairs are the problem," which connects his main concern to his home. He hopes to keep gardening and to walk his granddaughter to the park without worrying about his knee.
What the Student Learned About Interviewing
Three things were harder than expected. First, keeping Mr. G.'s words instead of translating them as he spoke; the student's first notes said crepitus where he had said crunching, and the translation lost the fact that he noticed it most on stairs. Second, following up without leading: asking what makes it worse got a better answer than asking whether stairs made it worse. Third, recording uncertainty honestly, as with borderline sugar, rather than turning his words into a diagnosis the student could not confirm. Bickley et al. (2021) describe the patient's own account as the foundation of the history, and keeping it in his words made this record more useful than a list of technical terms would have been.
The interview also showed the value of the order of questions. Ball et al. (2023) recommend beginning with open questions and moving to closed ones, and when the student started with tell me about your knee, Mr. G. offered the stairs, the crunching and the garden without prompting. The specific questions about morning stiffness and near-falls came afterward and filled gaps rather than steering the story. Had the student started with a checklist, Mr. G. would likely have answered only what was asked, and the detail about grabbing the railing, which came from his wife, might never have surfaced.
References
Ball, J. W., Dains, J. E., Flynn, J. A., Solomon, B. S., & Stewart, R. W. (2023). Seidel's guide to physical examination: An interprofessional approach (10th ed.). Elsevier.
Bickley, L. S., Szilagyi, P. G., Hoffman, R. M., & Soriano, R. P. (2021). Bates' guide to physical examination and history taking (13th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
Jarvis, C., & Eckhardt, A. (2024). Physical examination and health assessment (9th ed.). Elsevier.
What the NR 302 Week 2 assignment asks for
The Week 2 assignment asks you to interview a volunteer and record a complete health history, usually on a form or template your course provides. Expect sections for the reason for the visit, history of the present concern, past health, medicines and allergies, family history, a review of systems and daily living, plus a short reflection on your technique. Keep the person's words in quotation marks and add the technical term in parentheses, rather than translating as you write. Note who supplied each piece of information. Record doses and durations as specifically as the person can give them. Remove identifying details, and write down questions for your instructor rather than giving advice.
How this NR 302 Week 2 example is built
The record opens by explaining its rule: every line is labeled with its source, and the person's words stay in quotation marks. The main concern section keeps phrases like my right knee gives out on stairs, followed by the term for giving way. His wife's observation of him grabbing the railing is marked as hers. Past health, medicines read from bottles with doses, allergies, family history and a full review of systems follow the same pattern. A note records a question about ibuprofen and blood pressure for the instructor instead of advice. The final section reflects on technique, including translating crunching too early, and cites Ball et al. (2023) on open questions.
Reading the NR 302 Week 2 grading rubric
Health history rubrics usually award points for completeness of each section, accuracy and attribution, appropriate use of terminology, interviewing technique and professional reflection. Completeness carries heavy weight, so every section of the form has entries, with estimates where exact figures were not available. Accuracy and attribution score when the person's words are preserved and each source is labeled. Terminology earns credit when terms sit beside the words they translate instead of replacing them. Technique is shown through the reflection on open and closed questions. Removing identifiers and noting questions for the instructor protect professionalism criteria. Correct APA citations for the assessment texts complete it. Durations given as numbers, even estimates, make the record usable by the next nurse.
Common NR 302 Week 2 mistakes, and how to avoid them
The costliest mistake is the upgrade: a person describes a squeeze in the chest and the record calls it angina. Once the technical word replaces the original, nobody can recover what was said. Another loss is a flat record rewritten entirely in the student's voice. Durations written as recently, medicines with no dose, past conditions in no order, empty fields where an estimate was possible and identifying details left in all cost points. Use the person's words, then the term. Use medical terms where your section requires them, but keep the original. Bring your interview notes and the form, and a history record can be organized from them.
Get a NR 302 Week 2 example written to your instructions
Send the Week 2 instructions and the history form your classroom issues, and a custom example is written into those exact headings and returned inside 24 to 48 hours. The first one is free. The conversation you have, and the permission the other person gives you before it starts, are not things anyone can hand you.
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NR 302 Week 2 questions, answered
Should I use the person's exact words or my own?
Both, in different places. Their wording belongs anywhere a substitution would lose information, which at this stage of the course is most descriptions of how something feels. Your own wording belongs in the structural parts, the dates, the sequence and the headings. The record that reads badly is the one where a student has silently converted a plain description into a clinical noun and left no trace of the original.
My section wants medical terms. Should I use them everywhere?
Use them where you can define them without looking. A term you half-know is worse than the plain description it replaced, because the grader now has to decide whether you meant it. Writing burning behind the breastbone after eating costs nothing and loses nothing, while a misapplied noun costs the entry and casts doubt on the ones around it.
The form has boxes I do not understand. What goes in them?
Write what the person told you, in language you can stand behind, and leave the interpretation blank if the form separates the two. Beginners often fill an unfamiliar box with a guess at what it wants, which is how a health history acquires findings nobody reported. A row answered plainly is marked; a row answered wrongly is marked and queried. Ask what the row means before the interview, not after.
Where can I find a free NR 302 Week 2 sample paper?
The full Week 2 health history for Mr. G., with his words kept beside the technical terms and every line labeled by source, is reproduced on this page.
Why does the NR 302 Week 2 example keep the patient's own words?
Translating too early loses detail; writing crepitus where Mr. G. said crunching dropped the fact that he noticed it most on stairs, so his phrase stays first with the term after.