Essay On Siblings Of Chronicly Ill Children

From a pediatric perspective, the family is an integral part of the healthcare team. Parents are the primary ally and resource in providing individualized care for their child. Even in adult patients, who they are is impacted by the relationships that they have. Serious or chronic illnesses and injuries affect the entire family. The family, then, becomes the patient, particularly when it is necessary to make lifestyle changes.

Though there are many negative sides to having a special needs sibling like, having to grow up faster, the possibilities of divorce, and assuming the dreams for the parents, there are many positives too, such as learning better communication skills, heightening compassion and patience, and sometimes tightening familial bonds (Laferriere lecture, 2015). All of these positive traits have much to do with the last two forms of relationships that typically developing siblings have with their special needs siblings. These skills are important to all youths, though they are rarely mentored to them, and as such the typically developing sibling in combination with their special needs sibling is the perfect combination to help to mentor these skills to their typically developing peers (Laferriere lecture, 2015). These positive traits can be found in fully intact family units as well as single parent family units and as such are key to forming a positive bond between siblings no matter the age. However, that being said, like any good behavior, it is important to foster these positive traits when the typically developing child is in its childhood years, that preschool and elementary age that when by the time they reach the hormonal ages of adolescents they

Many people have many different definitions of a family. Some include family as the people they live with, some include their entire extended family, and some include friends, neighbors, coaches, and teachers. According to the Vanier Institute (2013), a family is “a combination of two or more persons who are bound together over time by ties of mutual consent, birth, and/or adoption” (para. 2). Whichever way you look at it, families often play a major role in life. It only makes sense that when a person begins to go through a drastic change in life such as illness, the family will be involved. This is why it is important that nurses learn how to provide suitable client and family centered care. They can do this by following the four

Including the client as an expert member of the team creates an enhanced quality of care (Coad, Patel & Murray, 2014). In pediatrics, parents are often at the center of the child’s care. When asked to define what made the client care experience positive, parents stated that sensitivity, empathy and honesty were key factors (Coad, Patel & Murray, 2014). Working in healthcare, nurses can become desensitized to difficult experiences because they deal with them daily. Integrating the client and family as part of the healthcare team, allows the nurse to see the patient and family as a people first. By avoiding using illness as context, and instead using person as context, care will be more holistic (Coad, Patel & Murray, 2014). A family-focused approach helps to ensure that the whole family feels a part of the experience and is valued. In the case of bereavement, family centered care is particularly important. If the family is not included in the care from the start, it can provide barriers for grieving and impact how the family deals with loss (Jones, Contro & Koch, 2014). Nurses have an opportunity to help support the family through the grief process (Jones, Contro & Koch, 2014). Families have a significant impact on how the client heals, so by caring for the family’s needs, the nurse is indirectly caring for the patient. It is in the client’s best interest for the care to be holistic for the patient as well as the family (Jones, Contro & Koch, 2014). All

Living with a chronic condition not only effects the individual, but it effects the entire family. An adolescent living with a chronic health condition not only depends on their family for support, but also on support from their friends, classmates, and healthcare team (Rostami, Parsa-Yekta, Najafi Ghezeljeh, & Vanaki, 2014). Supporting an individual with a chronic disease leaves an emotional impact and can be financially straining as well. Families living with a sick child must find strategies to cope. Whether the coping strategies utilized are positive or negative, they leave a lasting effect on the entire family, as well as the child living with the condition (Woodson, Thakkar, Burbage, Kichler, & Nabors, 2015). Involvement of the parents in this situation is vital to the child’s future success in managing their illness (Landers, Friedrich, Jawad, & Miller, 2016). This paper will explore one family’s story of living with, and coping with, a child who has recently been diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D).

work with individual families and with families as an aggregate within the population (Clark, 2003). Several areas will be presented such as biophysical, psychological, physical environmental, sociocultural, behavioral and health system considerations. The data obtained during family health assessment enable the nurse to make informed decisions about the health care needs of families (Clark).

When someone is suffering or living with a chronic illness it can have a huge impact on them psychologically and socially. Chronic Illness is a condition that is prolonged in duration, usually more than 3 months and is rarely cured (DoH, 2012). Having to cope with a chronic condition might lead to life changes, such as dependency on others, loss of income, which can cause feelings of loss and reduced self-esteem. They can also report feelings of social rejection, poor healthcare and workplace termination due to their presenting condition (Earnshaw, Quinn, & Park, 2011).

children and families cope and adjust to the challenges of hospital visits. Although a child life

-A succinct philosophy of family nursing is seen in The Association for the Care of Children’s Health standards stating the expectation for healthcare providers to facilitate family/professional collaboration at all levels of care, and to recognizing family as the constant in the patient’s life whereas the healthcare providers will fluctuate (p.40, 2003).

Children can find it hard coping if a family member has mental health issues. It can affect their lives and their emotional/social and intellectual development.

A collaborative approach, as an essential component of patient care, is emerging as best practice in recent literature. A review of the literature reveals that there is a common interchanging of the terms Patient and Family-Centered Care (PFCC), Family-Centered Care (FCC), and Patient-Centered Care (PCC). Although researchers interchange these terms often, there are commonalities that can be identified. General common principles include; information sharing, respect and honoring differences, partnership and collaboration, negotiation, and care in the

According to Erlingsson and Brysiewicz (2015), family is considered a core, social institution and is our first interaction with human beings. When viewing the family as a context, the nurse assesses the patient that is in need of care while in the background, there are the family members of the patient. According to Kaakinen, Coehlo, Steel, Tabacco & Hanson (2015), the source of support to the patient is his or her family members. Usually family members are in attendance with the patient. This approach is used when a mother is admitted to the intensive care unit after falling and sustaining head trauma. The patient is the mother. The nurse is focused on the mother and care was directed

Ph.D. degree acquired authors, Ronald L. Blount, Ronald T. Brown, and Natalie C. Frank, conducted a study focused on predictors of the overall psychological adjustment in children who are battling cancer. They concentrated on anxiety and depression levels and how the child externalizes behavior. There were 83 children who participated in this study of ages ranging from 7 to 18 years. After obtaining parental and child consent, the researchers proceeded to give each

Coping with a parent being seriously ill or the death of a parent can be extremely hard for children. They go through the feelings of loneliness, depression, and grief. When children are a witness to an ill parent or a deceased parent it causes an extreme amount of stress according to Buchwald, Delmar, & Schantz-Laursen (2011). Buchwald et al., (2011) also mentions that children may lose a sense of security when confronting a parent’s illness or death. Because of this, the child’s relationships are changed dramatically as well. The child must reestablish a relationship with the “healthier” parent since the other may be seriously ill or deceased. Like Buchwald, Koblenz (2015) also believes that maintaining a healthy relationship with the surviving or “healthier” parent will ultimately produce more positive results for the child that is coping.

Family is playing an important part in helping to ensure that patients are fit and following the advice of health care professionals. This is because the family is a foundation of support for everyone. At the same time, members can learn about what is impacting their loved one and what kind of procedures need to be followed. When this happens, there will be higher amounts of compliance as they will ensure that the patient continues to stick with their treatment protocol. (Saleeba, 2009)