Assessment of History Taking Skills of Doctors in an Outpatient Department in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract

A study of medical history–taking skills of doctors at the adult outpatient department of the Ikeja General Hospital was conducted. Patient records were selected through a systematic random sampling method. Three hundred and ninety–one records were studied. The most frequently obtained component of the patient history was the presenting complaint (95%) and the least was the social history (0.8%). The results show that important aspects of the medical history of patients are not obtained during consultations. Interventions are needed to address these inadequacies because of their implications in clinical care.

KEY WORDS: history–taking skills, clinical skills.

Nigerian Journal of Health and Biomedical Sciences Vol.4(1) 2005: 96-98