Essay about Friedman Family Assessment

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.

New norms of what is perceived as a family are emerging, according to Kaakinen, each distinct, with its own set of characteristics defining a healthy family (Kaakinen, Coehlo, Steele, Tabacco, & Hanson, 2015, pg. 37). Based on current demographic indicators, nursing must adapt to these evolving changes, to effectively identify real and potential risks affecting both the health and safety of the family unit.

The Family Systems Stressor-Strength Inventory (FS3I) is a tool used to evaluate and measure stressful conditions occurring in families and assist clinicians in developing intervention activities for individual members. By using this instrument, strengths and weaknesses of family functioning can be identified. The FS3I involves independent completion of the instrument by each member of the family prior to the interview with the clinician. After completion of the instrument, the clinician assesses the family on each of the stressful conditions from a general and specific perspective. Both quantitative and qualitative data are used to define the intervention required to establish equilibrium within the family (Kaakinen, Gedaly-Duff, Coehlo, &

The Family Systems Stressor-Strength Inventory (FS3I) is an instrument used to evaluate and measure stressful conditions occurring in families and assists nurses and families in developing intervention activities. By using this instrument, strengths and weaknesses of family functioning can be identified. The FS3I involves independent completion of the instrument by each member of the family prior to the interview with the clinician. After completion of the instrument, the clinician assesses the family on each of the stressful conditions from a general and specific perspective. The strengths and coping mechanisms of the family are also evaluated. Both quantitative and qualitative data are used to define the intervention needed to establish equilibrium

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:

The family-level of assessment is a systematic process to gain information regarding the family unit (Bell, Krumwiede, Denham, & Meiers, 2016). The information can be resources, strengths and risks to further assess the individual within the family’s needs. It is important to understand the nutritional and activity requirements within the family, and also assess the availability and affordability of nutritious food (Bell et al., 2016).

The purpose of this paper is to display how such assessment is essential not on an individual basis, but rather on a larger scale in relation to family nursing. Family nursing “centers on the family as a unit of care, addressing family needs in response to a member’s illness or threat to health, rather than focusing on the individual. An understanding of families’ needs at particular developmental stages, how they communicate and function, and an ability to undertake a family assessment is foundational knowledge for family nursing” (St John, 2009, p.6). Often, nurses encounter the families of their individual patients on a daily basis, yet family assessments are not performed. This is because nurses often feel there is little time to engage families effectively, and in fact lack of time, has been identified by nurses as the primary barrier to engaging families (Kaakinen, 2015, p.109). Evidence based practice however, has proven that “a 15 minute, or even shorter, family interview can be purposeful, effective, informative, and even healing” (Wright, 2013, p.264). This 15 minute interview has been adopted in many acute care settings in involves five key components; manners, therapeutic conversation, key questions, commendation, and the genogram. These ideas represent the theoretical underpinning and are a condensed version of the Calgary Family Assessment Model (Wright, 2013). This model is large, but can be customized and adapted to the function of each individual

Communication patterns within the family need substantial work, often the communication between family members is not clear nor firm, children do not respond favorably to feedback, there is not much listening and frequent feelings of judgment occur. M is very emotional and cries often when speaking with her daughters, M and S do not communicate often other than to discuss bills or their daughters. S makes most of the decisions in the house, and it is evident J and L have a higher respect for S. M continues to attend church, and would like the family to attend

When assessing Dixie Cup, I found that the Family Assessment and Intervention Model would be an appropriate tool to use as she is an inpatient and the description of her reaction to her parents after they have visited is an indicator of a stressor. This tool can generate an abundance of information for the nurse to assist the patient and family to improve coping by identifying stressors and strengths, the effectiveness of the roles within the family unit, and the current family structure. As her nurse, I would like to assess her separately from her parents giving her the opportunity to talk openly and honestly about the stressors and strengths within her family. I would also use the FS3 I to collect my data and identify the both the family

Communication pattern among the family varies, depending on the situation. There are times when communication is clear and concise and there are times when emotions are heightened and tense, especially between D and V. V is the primary caregiver and primary keeper of the home. V and D do consult each other on issues that concern the children but V is the one who delivers the decision or message to the children. V and D both work and contribute financially to the family and household. D’s

Promoting health within the family is just as important as the health of each family member. Assessing health patterns within the family structure, aids in identifying specific areas where nursing can intervene and help the family move in a direction of better health. Utilizing Gordon’s functional health patterns aids the nurse in collecting detailed health information from physical, mental, and social aspects of the family. Essentially, the data gathered helps in formulating nursing diagnoses in areas of wellness, risk and actual diagnoses.

A student nurse interviewed a family, identified three priority needs within the family concerning their health and well-being, implemented interventions to address these concerns, and marked their progress throughout the course of the spring 2016 semester. The student assessed the family’s home, financial stability, nutritional habits, physical health, level of education and family medical history to determine the needs of the family and how to best offer interventions to improve their overall health and well-being.

Kaakinen et a. (2015) states every family has a story about how the potential or actual health event influences its individual members, family functioning, and management of the health event. Nurses are charged with gathering, sifting, organizing, and analyzing the data to craft a clear view of the family’s story. Family assessment begins from the first moment that the family is referred to the nurse. It is important for nurses to filter data gathered in the story through different views or approaches, which affects how we think about the family as a whole and each individual family member.

Interrupted family processes related to inappropriate or inconsistent family roles is the nursing diagnosis for the Orlov family that requires multiple interventions to create a positive outcome for this family. Four characteristics of interrupted family processes include changes in participation in problem solving, ineffective patterns with communication, altered stress-reduction behaviors, and impaired intimacy (Newfield, Hinz, & Scott-Tilley, 2007). Improvement for the family processes may begin once each of these characteristics have been addressed and repaired.