NS420 Unit 2 Intake Interview Script Example

Twenty-Five Minutes Without a Right Answer: A Unit 2 Intake Interview Script for a Line Cook on a Late Shift

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

NS420: Nutritional Counseling

Unit 2 Intake Interview Script

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The client, the employer benefit and the script are composite; the motivational interviewing text, the shift work review and the nutrition care process update cited are real.

Purpose of the Script

The intake gathers what the nutrition care process calls assessment data: food and nutrition history, client history and what the client wants from counseling (Swan et al., 2017). Marco has a referral from his employer's wellness benefit after a screening showed high triglycerides. He did not ask to come. The script is written so that he talks most, the counselor learns how a night-shift cook really eats, and no question suggests what a good answer would be.

Opening, Minutes 0 to 4

Counselor: "Thanks for coming in before your shift. We have about twenty-five minutes. I'd like to learn how eating fits into your days, and then we can decide together whether there's anything worth working on. Does that sound all right?"

Note: Asking permission and naming the time limit sets a collaborative tone, which matters for a client who was referred rather than self-referred.

Counselor: "What did you hear about why you were sent here?"

Note: This lets Marco say in his own words what the screening meant to him before the counselor frames it.

His Day, Minutes 4 to 12

Counselor: "Walk me through yesterday, from when you woke up until you went to sleep. Anything you ate or drank, wherever you were."

Note: A 24-hour recall that starts from waking, not from breakfast, avoids assuming his day has a breakfast. Lowden et al. (2010) describe how shift workers often shift meal timing and eat at irregular hours, so a script built on three daytime meals would miss most of what he eats.

Follow-ups, used only as needed:

1. "What happened next?"

2. "Was anyone with you then?"

3. "How did you decide what to eat at that point?"

4. "About how much was that, using your hand or a cup as a guide?"

Note: Each follow-up is neutral. "Did you have any vegetables?" was cut from an earlier draft because it tells him vegetables are the answer.

Counselor: "Is yesterday pretty typical, or is a day off different?"

Work and Food, Minutes 12 to 17

Counselor: "Cooks often eat on the line or not at all. What is it like for you during a shift?"

Note: Normalizing both patterns, eating on the line or skipping, makes either answer easy to give.

Counselor: "After you finish at midnight, what does the rest of the night look like?"

Counselor: "What do you drink during a shift?"

Note: This is open on purpose. Asking "How much soda do you drink?" assumes soda and invites a low estimate.

What Matters to Him, Minutes 17 to 22

Counselor: "Setting the screening aside, is there anything about how you eat that you've thought about changing?"

Counselor: "Zero means not at all and ten means extremely. Where would you put the importance of changing anything about your eating right now?" Then: "Why that number and not a lower one?"

Note: The follow-up about a lower number draws out his own case for change, a technique described by Miller and Rollnick (2023). The reverse question, about a higher number, would mostly produce his reasons for staying put.

Closing, Minutes 22 to 25

Counselor: "I want to check I heard you correctly." The counselor summarizes his day, his drinks, what matters to him and anything he named as worth changing.

Counselor: "What did I miss?"

Counselor: "Would it be useful to meet again next week and look at one part of this together?"

Note: Ending with a summary and a question gives Marco the last word and lets him decide whether to return.

Questions Left Out

The script leaves out weight, diet history and lab values in this first meeting. They matter, but asking about them first would turn the visit into the screening he was sent from. The counselor will ask permission to discuss the triglyceride result at the second visit.

Every question in the script was tested against one rule: could Marco tell from the wording which answer the counselor hoped to hear?

What the Counselor Records

After the session, the counselor notes his usual eating times, the foods and drinks he named, his importance rating and his own words about change. These go into the assessment section of his record and set up the next unit's work.

References

Lowden, A., Moreno, C., Holmbäck, U., Lennernäs, M., & Tucker, P. (2010). Eating and shift work: Effects on habits, metabolism and performance. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health, 36(2), 150-162. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.2898

Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2023). Motivational interviewing: Helping people change and grow (4th ed.). Guilford Press.

Swan, W. I., Vivanti, A., Hakel-Smith, N. A., Hotson, B., Orrevall, Y., Trostler, N., Beck Howarter, K., & Papoutsakis, C. (2017). Nutrition care process and model update: Toward realizing people-centered care and outcomes management. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 117(12), 2003-2014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2017.07.015