Clinical Interview

Words: 316
Pages: 2

A clinical interview is a series of questions that clinicians administer in face-to-face interaction with the client (Whitbourne & Halgin, 2013, p. 49). A clinician obtains valuable information from the clinical interview. The clinical interview lays the groundwork for the assessment. The clinician can base the clinical interview on eight different areas to gather information from the client. These areas are: age and sex, reason for referral, education and work history, current social situation, physical and mental health history, drug/alcohol use and current medication, family history, and lastly, behavioral observations (Whitbourne & Halgin, 2013, p. 50).
As a psychiatric nurse, I do a clinical interview or assessment when a client is