A nurse gathering subjective data from a client during a health assessment plans to ask the client about the medical history of the client's extended family. About which family members should the nurse ask the client?

• A. Spouse and spouse's parents
• B. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins
• C. Foster children and their parents
• D. Spouse's children from a previous marriage

Answer: (B)

When gathering subjective data about family medical history, you concentrate on relatives who share genes with the patient. Health patterns in extended family members—such as aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins—can reveal hereditary risks that aren’t evident in the immediate family. This helps identify conditions that may run in the family and guides decisions about screening and prevention.

Relatives who aren’t biologically related to the patient, like a spouse and the spouse’s relatives, don’t provide information about inherited risk. Foster children and their parents, and a spouse’s children from a prior marriage, aren’t genetically connected to the patient, so their medical histories aren’t primary sources for assessing hereditary risk.