Family Health Assessment Paper

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

“A family is a set of interacting individuals related by marriage, blood, and adoption or by cohabitation interdependently perform relevant functions to fulfill expected role” (Edelman & Mandle, 2010). Systems theory allows a nurse to view patient as a whole family unit, which the action of each member will influence one another. Family developmental theory is to assist the patients through every stage of life. Gordon’s functional health patterns are eleven principles incorporated with the nursing process to collect data, assess patients and families, and provide a diagnosis for

* Select a literature search topic relevant to your practice. The topic must be sufficiently delineated in scope without being trivial. You will revisit this article in the Week Five presentation. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

They also take daily dose of multivitamins but no food supplements. The husband is allergic to strawberries because it causes his throat to itch and runny nose.

We constructed 10-year risk assessment charts of CVD incidence using important risk factors. Such a user-friendly chart included SBP, WHR, diabetes, smoking status, CVD family history and TC. SBP was grouped into four classes: (1) <120, (2) 120-139, (3) 140-159, and (4) ≥160 mmHg. These cutoff points were based on National Cholesterol Education Program’s Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III). TC was categorized into five groups: (1) <150, (2) 150-200, (3) 200-250, (4) 250-300 and (5) ≥300 mg/dL. High waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) was defined as WHR ≥ 0.80 and 0.95 in women and men, respectively. When FBS ≥126 mg/dL or the 2h post-load plasma glucose ≥200 mg/dL or the patient was receiving anti-diabetic agents, subjects were diagnosed with diabetes mellitus. The smoking variable comprised current smokers.

Relationship was established to build trust and compliance, followed by assessment of the family type and structure. Functional family assessment evaluates how individuals behave towards one another, looking at the here and now of the family relations (Wright & Leahey (2009). The interview was conducted and findings were used in developing plan of care based on family function and coping ability in relation to health and wellness.

Family Health Assessment plays significant role in formulating an appropriate healthcare plan within a family setup. An appropriate health assessment is utilized as a tool for the evaluation of health issues for understanding health choices and assistance in making appropriate health - related choices for a targeted family. Every family is unique having variety of perceptions and different ways of life style. Health care professionals and nurses play an important role in promoting health care for the family. The term family represents children and biological parents living together in a most harmonious way. These family members need to adapt to

Family health promotion starts at home, it is a family affair, a family process that sustains or enhances the physical, social, emotional, and spiritual well-being of its members; the family nurse plays a vital role in facilitating this environment (Kaakinen, Coehlo, Steele, Tabacco, & Harmon Hanson, 2015). The use of routines and rituals is a nursing intervention that can assist families through empowerment, to take control of their health, to produce healthier outcomes. Routines provide structure and order in a family’s daily life, while rituals provide a more formal perspicuity of the family unit. Using routines and rituals nurses can assist family members with constructing, modifying, or changing their routines to facilitate the health needs present in their household, leading to better outcomes. Therefore, this type of intervention would benefit families whose members suffer from chronic illnesses, and who need to

Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns is a system that was created by Marjorie Gordon in 1987. This system served as a guide to establishing a broader nursing database. These assessments include things such as evaluations of patterns within a family with corresponding details in an interdependent pattern. Gordon’s 11 functional health patterns consist of values/health perception, nutrition, sleep/rest, elimination, activity/exercise, cognitive, self perception, role relationship, sexuality, and coping. Each method is designed to collect information using a systematic and standardized approach. The collected information helps a nurse determine

The patterns of coping as stress tolerance describe the family’s ability to manage stress effectively in life. The main stressful issue was their opposite work schedule. The mother stated that she was not getting enough sleep, especially when the children get sick. They both have to work to pay off their bills, and for their children’s future education. Both parents speak with each other and take mutual decisions in stressful times. Along with this, they find stress relief in prayer and speaking with intimate friends. The pattern of family values and beliefs reflects on their own values, life meaning, and spiritual life. Even though they follow Indian cultures and traditions, they adopt some of the western lifestyle too. They maintain good family values, such as respect for one another, understanding, flexibility, support, and spending time together.

This paper addresses the Family Health assignment. These includes a family issues will be examined using the Family Health Model. It will include the history and concepts of the FHM as well as interventions that can be used. the theoretical framework will be utilized in identifying how this theory can address the unique needs of this family.

As there are different theoretical perspectives on the family, I find the most effective is Gordon's functional health patterns. This method allows to provide comprehensive nursing assessment of the family, based on 11 functional health patterns. The subjective data, collected by using open-ended questions, assists to understand the individual's health perception and health management. The nurse can identify what practices the family is using for maintaining health and collect “information about frequency of family meals; attendance at religious services; characteristics of parental relationship with children; parental coping abilities while raising children; and methods for handling family disagreements.” (Edelman, Mandle, & Kudzma, 2014).

In order to complete the current assignment the task of interviewing a family and eliciting their response to family focused questions regarding functional health patterns was required. Two or more wellness nursing diagnosis were to be developed which were to correlate directly to the responses provided. A summarization of those thirty-three questions, covering all eleven health patterns, as well as the two nursing diagnosis are included in this document.

Some of the women in the family have depression/anxiety and this can be incorporated into a negative self-perception. The men of the family tend to have positive and confident feelings of themselves. The next topic of Gordon’s Functional Family Patterns is role relationships. The roles of the family members are all different. The role’s of the family are pretty traditional, as grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and children. The family interviewed is very close and all help provide care for the children of the family, as well as one another when needed. The next topic is sexuality. The family doesn’t voice any concerns over sexual activity concerns. The women in the family of child-bearing age are educated and use contraceptive measures. The obstetrical history is only previous pregnancies. The last topic is coping. Some coping strategies the family discussed using is therapy, discussions, whether in private or as a family, avoidance, massage therapy, music, and other relaxation techniques. Most of these tend to be effective, although the avoidance technique proves to be the least effective. Although there is no confrontation, the problem is never truly solved which builds resentment. Any of the patterns evaluated must be evaluated in the context of other patterns and its contributions to the most optimal function of the family assessed (Gordon, 2012).

The sole provider, mother, has a lot of responsibilities. She is always concerned for the family wellbeing causing her to be stressed most of the time. The husband’s condition also causes her concerns. Apart from his physical condition due to the accident, he is Hypertensive and diabetic. Family history coming from his family side. The woman is in charge the father undergoes medical checkups monthly, and that all prescribed medication is taken. It is very unfavorable the internal and external family environment. Their 2 bedroom apartment is not a very good neighborhood. There is flaking wall paint, and stuffy house. The house is not very spacious to accommodate the entire family but they make it happen. The children and the grandfather share the room and the mother and father share the other. The children are not very comfortable with their living condition but understand somehow the situation and their living conditions.