A successful health care interview requires specialized skills, many of which are beyond the scope of the book and this website.  Fortunately, there are general principles used in the health care interview which are relevant for this brief overview.   Specifically, you should keep the following issues in mind:

• Health care interviews are quite common and all of us engage in these interviews, even if only as interviewees. 
• The relationship between the health care provider and the patient is complex.  The health care provider has clearly defined goals for the interview and this task focus is often perceived as being aloof and uncaring.  Patients often experience a variety of emotions during the interview.  The interplay between the provider's task orientation and the patient's emotion can often cause both individuals to become frustrated with the encounter.
• Both the health care provider and the patient must encourage two way dialogue about feelings rather than simple one way dialogue about more technical matters of medicine.
• Medical providers must move beyond simply gathering a patient's medical history and must create a supportive, individualized, and comfortable atmosphere where they enact effective listening behaviors.
• When giving information, the health care provider should not assume patients know or understand even the most basic instances of medical jargon.  Rather, the provider must establish a trusting relationship, encourage patients to ask questions, provide patients with necessary information, and finally, use effective communication techniques like organization and visual supplements to present technical information.
• The provider must also enact effective counseling skills to treat the "whole patient."  To be effective at counseling, the provider must display empathy, trust, honesty, caring, and must validate the patient's feelings.