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To compare the effectiveness of a patient-completed paper-and -pencil questionnaire with the nursing interview in obtaining the admission history, 30 patients newly admitted to a Veterans Administration hospital were asked to complete a questionnaire and were given the routine nursing interview. Data were compared for accuracy and nursing time required. The nurses made significantly more errors of omission in an unstructured interview than the patient made in completing the questionnaire (p greater than .001). The nurse spent an average of 11.5 minutes on her interview while the investigator used an average of 0.9 minute to explain the reason for the questionnaire to the patient and obtain his consent to its completion. Study findings are discussed as a means of providing an accurate, systematic, recorded data base for planning nursing care.