Family Health Assessment Essay

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.

Nurses interact with families in a variety of community-based and clinical settings. The family nursing process is the same, regardless of the setting or whether the focus is on the family as a whole or on an individual in that family (Crisp & Taylor 2005). In the case of a 3 year old girl just diagnosed with leukaemia, it is important for a nurse to critically analyse the situation and address any immediate concerns. The nurse must address any professional issues that may arise and any potential impacts of hospitalisation that may affect the child and the family. Also provide support and education to reassure and comfort them. The primary concern for paediatric nurses is the welfare of the child and the family (Crisp & Taylor 2005).

The family assessment is a thorough assessment done by a health care provider. This assessment is the foundation of how health care providers deliver care for a certain member of the family or the family as a whole. This assessment involves exploration of the family structure, development, and function. In addition, the family will express their strengths and barriers, internal and external structure, ethnicity, social class, religion, and subsystems, which will allow the reader a better understanding of the family’s functioning.

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

Healthy digestive system is needed to have a proper elimination. This family suffered from chronic constipation, irregular bowl patterns, gas and heart burns. High stress and taking multiple over the counter medications contributed to this families altered elimination patterns. Their diet consists of foods that have low fiber, high starch and high fat, resulting in the constipation. Father suffered from prostate problems, which made him wake up multiple times middle of the night to urinate.

A comprehensive family assessment provides a foundation to promote family health, Edelman & Mandle, C. L., (2011). This assessment of family health offers many approaches that involve getting to know the strengths and weaknesses of the family. According to Stanhope & Lascaster (2010), the family nursing assessment is the cornerstone for family

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

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

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

Before using the following guidelines in completing family assessments, two words of caution. First, not all areas included below will be germane for each of the families visited. The guidelines are comprehensive and allow depth when probing is necessary. The student should not feel that ever sub-area needs to be covered when the broad area of inquiry poses no problems to the family or concern to the health worker. Second, by virtue of the interdependence of the family system, one will find unavoidable redundancy. For the sake of efficiency, the assessor should try

In 1987 Marjorie Gordon proposed a functional health pattern as a guide to establish a comprehensive nursing data base. A comprehensive family assessment provides a foundation to promote family health (Edelman and Mandel, 2001).There is 11 categories that provide a systematic and standardized approach to determine the aspects of health and human function. By interviewing the entire family it becomes possible to determine the functional and dysfunctional (or risky) behaviors for the individual and well as the family as a whole.

The purpose of this essay is to define public health and compare it to personal health, also a discussion of benefits and disadvantages of public health. The following questions will also be answered: What are the benefits of public health assessments? What are the disadvantages, if any? Give an example of a potential conflict within the community that could arise as a result of public health assessments. How can public health advocates and policy makers prevent and/or manage such a conflict? How can public health assessments be used to form public policy? Additionally, this paper will debate the how the community has or will be affected by the smoking in public places laws.

Health practices are activities performed by individuals or families as a whole to promote health and prevent disease. Health practices vary from family to family and nurses play a pivotal role in promoting health for the family. Families identify and perform health-maintenance activities based on their perceptions about their health because their choices are influenced by the family’s values, beliefs, priorities, cultures and practices. Being a nurse requires an assessment of the family as a whole. A family health assessment is to evaluate and describes the health status of a given family