Clinical Practice

Advanced and Specialised History Taking

A course in the harder conversations that a basic history-taking framework does not fully prepare a clinician for: sexual and reproductive history, gender-based violence disclosure, substance use, mental health and suicide risk, history from children and older patients, collateral history when the patient cannot speak for themselves, history across a language barrier without a trained interpreter, and medico-legal documentation.

5.0 CPD credit hour · 15 modules · 288 minutes · 80% to pass · UGX 75,000

Course aim

To build confidence and skill in the sensitive, difficult or adapted conversations that ordinary history taking does not fully cover.

What you will be able to do

• Take a sexual and reproductive health history respectfully and effectively.
• Recognise and respond appropriately to a disclosure of gender-based violence.
• Take a substance use history that produces honest answers.
• Take a mental health history and screen for suicide and self-harm risk directly.
• Take a history from children and from older patients with multiple conditions.
• Build a reliable collateral history when a patient cannot give their own.
• Take a history across a language barrier without a trained interpreter.
• Document a history correctly for medico-legal purposes where relevant.

Syllabus

1. Course Information — What this course covers, who it is for, and how it is assessed (12 min)
2. Learning Outcomes and Pre-Course Self-Assessment — What you should be able to do by the end, and where you stand now (10 min)
3. Why These Conversations Need a Different Approach — What changes when the topic, or the patient, is not straightforward (14 min)
4. Sexual and Reproductive Health History — Asking directly and respectfully, without assumptions (24 min)
5. Screening for and Responding to Gender-Based Violence — Asking safely, and responding well when a patient discloses (26 min)
6. Substance Use History — Alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, asked without judgement (22 min)
7. Mental Health History and Risk Assessment — Asking directly about mood, and about suicide and self-harm risk (26 min)
8. History Taking in Children — Using the caregiver and the child together, not one instead of the other (22 min)
9. History Taking in the Older Patient — Multiple conditions, multiple medications, and a presentation that may not fit one diagnosis (22 min)
10. History Without the Patient's Own Account — Collateral history when the patient cannot tell you themselves (22 min)
11. History Across a Language Barrier Without a Trained Interpreter — What to do when no formal interpretation is available (22 min)
12. Medico-Legal and Forensic History Documentation — Recording a history that may later matter in a legal setting (20 min)
13. Clinical Case Studies and Applied Clinical Reasoning — Four conversations that bring the whole course together (26 min)
14. Personal Reflection, Action Plan and Course Evaluation — Turning what you have learned into one specific change (12 min)
15. References and Further Reading — Where this course's guidance comes from, and where to go deeper (8 min)

Who it is for

• Clinical Officers
• Medical Officers
• Nurses
• Midwives
• Allied Health Professionals

Competencies

• Sensitive-topic history taking
• Gender-based violence screening and response
• Substance use and mental health history
• Paediatric and geriatric history taking
• Collateral history construction
• Cross-language communication without an interpreter
• Medico-legal documentation