You will be doing H & P’s (history and physicals) obtaining history in a logical sequence progressing from past to present. First, you will ask about the history of the present illness and then past medical and family history. The next questions will be about medications the patient has been taking. As you gather this history be prepared to hear a variety of alternative forms of medicine that are not considered orthodox by the medical profession. For example, how do you respond to a patient that states he being treated using homeopathy, which dilutes one molecule of a substance in a minimum of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 [or 1060] molecules of water? Would you have a different reaction if the patient brought with him bags of medicinal substances from plants, animals, and minerals of which there are over 5,000 in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)? How would you respond if the patient begins explaining how he is visiting a reflexologist and by applying pressure points to his feet it has cured many of his illnesses? A more common report from the patient might be his use of acupuncture as this is becoming more widely used in mainstream medicine. Your facial reactions and other nonverbal language may signal that you are skeptical of these alternative forms of medicine. If your background is grounded in Western medicine, you may not fully understand the cultural implications of the above treatments and medicines. An ethnocentric viewpoint would be to dismiss them as quackery, inferior, and harmful. An experienced and open-minded clinician will not be dismissive of these approaches but take a multicultural viewpoint in an attempt to fully understand the patient in order to provide the best treatment plan.
