Please just answer the question.

One of the biggest problems I have with history taking is that no one answers the question. I am unsure if it's because people are stupid or if the questions I ask don't make sense. Or something in between. I am not the only one who has this problem though because I have heard mention of it many times before. How difficult is it to answer "how often do you have the abdominal pain?" or "when was the last time you took tylenol?"

I had to work with this doctor for two straight weeks and he was, to put it nicely, an unpleasant person to be around. His bedside manner was crude, his personal interactions were awkward, and many of his patients switched to the other doctor he worked with for their care. I even had one patient in the hospital recently refuse the consult if he was the one on service that week. However, he did not let patients get away with not answering the question. He would say to them "No. That is not what I asked." and restate the question.

I have observed many interviews where the doctor lets the patient go on a tangent and things get muddled and the interview took three times longer than it had to. Obviously we learned in our "how to be a doctor" courses to ask open ended questions and not cut the patient off. That's another discussion for another day. In general, I have learned that while you should let the patient talk, you also need to be in control of the interview.

As an example, myself and another medical student were interviewing a patient and her mother. This patient had asthma and we had to figure out how often she was using her rescue inhaler to see how bad her asthma really was.

Sarah: How often do you use your inhaler?
Mother: It's only when she coughs a lot.
Sarah: Yes, but how often would you say that is?
Daughter: I only use it when I cough a lot and then I have to use it.
Other student: Right, but how many times do you cough a lot and have to use your inhaler? Once a week? Twice a week? Every day?
Daughter: It's really only when I cough. If I'm not coughing I don't use it.
Mother: She doesn't use it that much. Only when she starts coughing.

I give up.