Family Focused Health Assessment
L. L.
Grand Canyon University
August 11, 2013
Family Focused Health Assessment
As the society we live in continues to transform, nurses need a comprehensive tool to assess family’s health patterns. Family units are influenced by environment, biological, mental, social and spiritual factors. Assessing these areas for health promotion and disease prevention will take all of these influences into consideration (Edelman & Mandle, 2010). A priority to a family focused health assessment approach is to adequately question, assess and examine these areas. A tool to assist a family health assessment using a family focused approach is Gordon’s 11 Functional Patterns. This paper will use these 11
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Lake re-gain his lost weight. The observation made during this assessment is Mr. Lake appears very thin, he states he is 6’4” and weighs 172 lbs. Despite this, he presents with a general appearance of well-being and health. Mrs. Lake does feel supported by her husband as she states he has recently started helping in preparing his own snacks (a lot), to increase his intake and calories. Despite the knowledge that no health conditions presented themselves, the concern that something is still amiss is undeniable.
Coping-Stress-Tolerance Pattern
The next area of focus presented itself after asking certain questions in this area. Mr. and Mrs. Lake discuss the emotional stress brought on by moving from California to Arizona last year and leaving their 23 year old handicapped son Brad behind in California. Brad resides in a group home where he has lived for the past 10 years. He is very accustomed to his environment there; his needs are put first and it is best for him to stay there. To cope they contact his’ group home weekly to evaluate his needs and concerns the home may have. In addition, plans are made so Mrs. Lake can drive or fly to California to attend important meetings and appointments with her son Bradley. She describes the stress of being so far from her son very hard. She states she relies on her husband, Christian faith, and Brads’ care-takers to help her cope. Observations of this couple show a very solid support system provided
Nurses often use the aspect of time as an excuse not to conduct a family interview, however, Wright and Leahey (2009) clearly demonstrate how integrating families into patient care does not have to consume a lot of time. Using the Calgary Family Assessment Model (CFAM) and Calgary Family Intervention Model (CFIM), a family interview can be organized and conducted in a less amount of time, and end in a greater understanding of the patient and family. The CFAM contains three major categories including structural, developmental, and functional, which can be used to assess a family or help them address a specific health issue (Wright & Leahey, 2009). The CFIM uses assessments focusing on strengths, meaning that it uses the strengths of each individual family member, and the unit as a whole to provide positive interventions. This allows the interventions to focus on encouraging the family, rather than their deficits or dysfunctions (Wright and Leahey, 2009). During the 15-minute interview, it is suggested to have the entire family present so that the interviewer is able note reactions and collaborate with each family member, thus providing the most acceptable plan of care for the entire family.
The Family Systems Stressor-Strength Inventory (FS3I) scoring reflects how well different aspects apply to the Hyppolite family. Includes health issues, responsibilities, communications, work situation, satisfaction, housekeeping standards, etc… The Scoring was divided into two different sections, Family Perception Score and Clinical Perceptions Scores. Both sections were then divided into another three parts. The tool strengths and stressors factors are
According to Stanhope and Lancaster (2008) “Each family is an unexplained mystery, unique in the ways it meets the needs of its members and society” (p. 550). Family nursing is a special field that involves the nurse and family working together to achieve progress for the family and its members in adjusting to transitions and responding to health and illness. The Friedman Family Assessment Model serves as a guide in family nursing to identify the developmental stage of the family, environmental data, family structure, composition, and functions as well as how the family manages stress and their coping mechanisms. From this data, three nursing diagnoses with interventions are developed.
Family Assessment The family chosen for this assignment are family friends who agreed to conduct the interview and discuss any health issues they had. Because some of the questions were fairly invasive into their private lives, no names are given. There are five members in the family, and they all participated in the interview. Questions are based on the eleven functional health patterns.
Using the CFAM to conduct a family interview, I identified a nursing diagnoses and interventions for the family I interviewed.
The health of a family is a vital part of how that family interacts with one another and how each individual of the family will function in society, later teaching their children about a healthy lifestyle or lack thereof. The family health assessment helps to identify risk factors and potential dysfunction (Edelman, 2014) I interviewed a single parent family home about their health and how they perceive it. This family is an all-male family, an athletic seventeen year old boy getting ready for his senior year, a twenty year old young man, and a hardworking, dedicated, overweight father.
A family health assessment is a process by which a nurse evaluates and describes the health status of a given family. It is a framework that helps to identify areas of potential risk for illness, opportunities for health education and actions needed to address these (World Health Organization, 2001). Specifics covered in a nurse led family assessment will include family history, perceptions about health, reports, health records, and any clinic test results. The nurse conducts an interview, compiles data and performs an appropriate
Family health assessment is an integral part of the formula used in creating a customized plan of care for the families’ health care. Family health assessment is also a tool that can be used to identify and evaluate the family’s health concerns, their life style and also helping families make good decisions regarding their family’s health. Family’s perception towards health and health promotion could be very different and unique, which makes the Family health assessment even more challenging for the nurses and health care professionals. Nurse’s have a moral obligation towards the society to help them promote their families health. The
No major events have occurred in their life since the death of AH’s mom 2 years ago. In the event of any crisis, they depend on the extended family and church members for emotional and morale support. After this family assessment, I felt that the nursing wellness diagnosis (2012) for this family would be:
A comprehensive family assessment provides a foundation to promote family health (Edelman & Mandle, 2011). 1987 Marjorie Gordon purposed 11 functional health patterns to use for guidance in order to facilitate nurses to have a frame work for the family assessment in. Gordon’s 11 functional health patterns help organizes basic family assessment information. This standardized format will guide nurses to complete the family assessment using system approaches, which will identify a patient’s
The Purnell Domains of Culture assessment gives a vast amount of information in regards to a persons cultural background, family and heritage that gives care provides a better understanding of their client or clients family. As a future care provider, I took the time to speak to Mrs. Smith about herself and family to gain insight on whom they are as a family and what influences them to be who they are today. Over the course of the domains of culture I have been able to increase my perception of who and what drives this family and how their beliefs came about.
The family has various functions that include teaching members’ values, morals and beliefs as they relate to health practices. Health can be defined as a complete state of wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease. Gordon’s functional health patterns are a methodology developed by Marjorie Gordon in 1987 to be used as a guide to establish a comprehensive nursing database (Kriegler & Harton, 1992). Gordon’s eleven functional health patterns are; health perception/ health
Definition of Health Promotion is increasing awareness, indentifying alternatives and influencing attitudes of the people, so that they can make an informed decision and change their behaviors to achieve an optimal level of mental, physical and social health. Health promotion is also defined as the process of empowering people to improve and take control of their health to optimize the quality of their lives. Ennis et al (2006) has explained health promotion as emotional, cognitive and behavioral endeavor to promote well being and health of the people. Davis (1995) expresses a deeper perspective in which preventive health science, social environment,
Using Gordon’s functional health patterns to assess a family will guide the nurse in developing a comprehensive nursing assessment that is holistic in nature. Gordon’s functional health patterns are founded on 11 principles that are incorporated within the nursing practice. These 11 principles serve as a framework for a thorough nursing assessment in which to build a holistic and individual family care plan (Grand Canyon University, 2011). The author has developed family-focused questions for each of the 11 principles and utilized these questions as a tool to assess her own family. This paper will summarize the family assessment that was performed by the author and discuss two wellness nursing diagnoses that
Some short term stressors include planning a wedding, and driving to work in traffic for an hour to go fifteen miles. Parental health issues of the patient is a long term stressor. The family strengths ae noted in the previous section. Coping strategies of the past was not provided by the patient. Currently, the couple discuss problems amongst themselves as well as relaxation efforts. Previous dysfunctional strategies involving blaming others and taking out anger and frustrations on the parents. They were blaming each other so much that they were no longer in a relationship. During this time they would not talk to friends or family members. The patient did not report any current dysfunctional patterns. The Smith family has the means and ability