NRS 429 Topic 2 Family Health Assessment Part I
The promotion of optimum health of families is imperative in healthcare. Nurses utilize their understanding of family structure and diversity in needs to develop care plans that promote the health, wellbeing, and recovery of family members. Family assessment enables nurses to provide holistic care that addresses both the actual and potential needs of the family members. The assessment provides insights into family strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities to be explored to achieve the desired health-related goals. Therefore, this paper examines an interview performed with a family to identify its health status and application of family systems theory to promote positive change in the family’s functions over time.
Description of the Family Structure
The interviewed family comprises seven members that include parents aged between 40 and 50 years, a grandparent aged 75 years, and two children aged between 10 and 20 years. The family is of African American ethnicity. It is a Christian family living in a family-owned home. The father is a nurse while the mother is a teacher. The grandfather is a retired army officer. The children are school-going. The family is of the middle class, living in a healthy environment. It engages in activities that contribute to the development of the community. For example, it assists the poor in achieving their health-related needs.
Overall
The interview revealed the family to be of moderate health. Most of the family members were found healthy except the grandfather who is diabetic and suffers from depression. The family engages in activities that contribute to their positive health. They include engaging in active physical activities, eating healthy diets, and utilizing social support systems to achieve their health-related needs. The interview also showed the family to utilize screening services for health problems, including hypertension, cancer, and obesity. The interview showed some areas of weaknesses that threaten its health. They include high costs of care and access to specialized care. The family raised concerns about the increasing costs of addressing the care needs of the grandfather. In most cases, the family found it hard to access the specialized care he needed due to its geographical location in the region. Therefore, it was essential to assist the family to identify ways of addressing their health-related challenges.
Functional Health Pattern Strengths
The interview revealed some functional health pattern strengths in the family. One of the strengths relates to values/health perception patterns. The family was aware of its health needs and how to achieve them. It understood the unique health needs of each member of the family. It was also aware of the importance of engaging in health practices that promote its health. For example, its members utilize screening services to identify and manage health problems promptly. The family members also engage in active physical activity to prevent health problems, including obesity, overweight, diabetes, and hypertension. The second functional area of strength identified during the interview is coping. The family acknowledged experiencing stressors that affect its overall health. However, it uses effective coping strategies such as seeking support from each other and community members to overcome the stressors. It also seeks professional support from counselors and healthcare providers to overcome adversities. Effective coping with stressors has enabled the family to develop resilience to unforeseen events that may affect its members (Davey et al., 2020).
One of the barriers to health identified in the family is the high cost of care. The family members noted that achieving grandfather’s health needs has been costly for them. The grandfather needs frequent hospitalizations for depression and diabetes, which increases the costs incurred in the family. The costs incurred in seeking specialized carehave been rising, hence, the challenge. The other barrier identified from the interview is access to specialized care. The family noted challenges in accessing specialized care it needed due to its geographical location in the region (Huot et al., 2019). One of the health problems identified from the interview is the grandfather suffering from diabetes and depression. The children are also predisposed to lifestyle-related problems due to too much screen time and playing video games (Anderson & Durstine, 2019). Therefore, it was essential to educate the family about the importance of engaging consistently in activities that promote their health.
Application of Family Systems Theory
The family systems theory can be appliedto solicit changes in family members that, in turn, initiate positive change to the overall functions over time. The theory provides insights on how family members can be influenced to contribute to their optimal health (Bottorff et al., 2021). The analysis of theoretical concepts such as sibling behavior and family problems increases nurses’ understanding of family functioning and health. Therefore, they can use it to strengthen positive behaviors that will contribute to their optimal functioning and the health of the family (Bottorff et al., 2021). In addition, the theory can be used to increase the understanding of the family members of the interdependence in their roles and how to engage in activities contributing to their optimal health.
Conclusion
Overall, a family assessment is important in nursing practice. Nurses utilize it to understand the actual and potential family needs. The interview performed with the family revealed some strengths and weaknesses. It is important for nurses working with the family to empower the members to identify opportunities for minimizing their barriers to health. In addition, they should explore the incorporation of the family systems theory into the care given to the family to ensure its optimum health.
References
Anderson, E., & Durstine, J. L. (2019).Physical activity, exercise, and chronic diseases: A brief review.Sports Medicine and Health Science, 1(1), 3–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smhs.2019.08.006
Bottorff, J. L., Huisken, A., Hopkins, M., & Friesen, L. (2021).Scaling up a community-led health promotion initiative: Lessons learned and promising practices from the Healthy Weights for Children Project.Evaluation and Program Planning, 87, 101943. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2021.101943
Davey, J., Herbst, J., Johns, R., Parkinson, J., Russell-Bennett, R., &Zainuddin, N. (2020). The role of health locus of control in value co-creation for standardized screening services. Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 30(1), 31–55. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSTP-08-2018-0180
Huot, S., Ho, H., Ko, A., Lam, S., Tactay, P., MacLachlan, J., &Raanaas, R. K. (2019). Identifying barriers to healthcare delivery and access in the Circumpolar North: Important insights for health professionals.International Journal of Circumpolar Health, 78(1), 1571385. https://doi.org/10.1080/22423982.2019.1571385
NRS 429V Week 5 Discussion 2 NEW SYLLABUS
How could you use the family structural theory to determine if a family is dysfunctional or not? Provide evidence to support your answer.
NRS 429 Topic 5 DQ 2 OLD SYLLABU
What characteristics would lead a provider to suspect domestic violence, child abuse, or elder abuse is taking place within a family? Discuss your facility’s procedure for reporting these types of abuse.
Re: Topic 5 DQ 1
Health education is used to teach people how their actions or inactions have affected their overall health and well-being. Health promotion is when this information is used by the individual in order to promote their own health and have positive outcomes. “Nurses are actively involved in both health promotion and health education, providing education that is necessary to help patients achieve control over the promotion of their own health” Grand Canyon University, 2018). The nursing process is vital in developing health education. You first begin by assessing the knowledge your patient already has and what kind of learning style they possess. Next you would make a plan of how you wanted to educate the patient and the strategies they would best respond to. You should then implement the plan. And lastly, you need to evaluate how much and what information you patient has retained.
When I lived in the Midwest one of the major issues that affected many friends and family was the opioid epidemic. Many people I knew were not prone to drug abuse but because of lack of education found themselves abusing opioids. This type of addiction did not care what social or economic status you found yourself at, it did not discriminate against anyone. “Health education programs are a vital component to end the opioid epidemic by preventing opioid addiction and misuse before overdose or opioid-related comorbidities occur” (Policy Brief A Nation in Crisis: A Health Education Approach to Preventing Opioid Misuse and Addiction, n.d.). In order to slow the addiction to these kinds of drugs it is important to educate every patient before they begin taking any of these types of medications about their addictive nature. This should be done using public programs so that they have the information before they are even given an opioid. They then can address the issue with their doctor if they are ever prescribed an opioid. “Therefore, health education is not only effective in its ability to allow community members to make informed health decisions, but to improve safety and quality of life” (Policy Brief A Nation in Crisis: A Health Education Approach to Preventing Opioid Misuse and Addiction, n.d.).
Grand Canyon University (Ed). (2018). Health promotion: Health & wellness across the continuum. Retrieved from https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs429vn/health-promotion-health-and-wellness-across-the-continuum/v1.1/
Policy Brief A Nation in Crisis: A Health Education Approach to Preventing Opioid Misuse and Addiction. (n.d.). https://www.sophe.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Policy-Brief-Heealth-education-and-opioids.pdf
REPLY
Hello Robin,
I agree with you that health education is critical component in nursing practice. It is the main tool that guides in health promotion approaches. The nurses have a responsibility to educate the members of the public on health risks, predisposing factors, the effects of the diseases and finally the preventive measures (Whitehead, n.d.). I also agree with you that health education empowers the members of the community hence increase their safety. This is as a result of having information on the risks of various lifestyle choices and habits that could have adverse effects to the health hence informed choices. Guidance and counselling patients is also a form of health education. In tackling the opioid misuse epidemic in the US, the federal regulation stipulates clearly the for the centers that dispense methadone treatment to offer counselling, the same applies to doctors who prescribe these drugs, they should refer the patients for counselling (Hoffman et al., 2019). This demonstrates how health education is a critical component in the healthcare systems.
References
Whitehead, D. (n.d.). Exploring health promotion and health education in nursing. Journals.Rcni.com.
Hoffman, K. A., Ponce Terashima, J., & McCarty, D. (2019). Opioid use disorder and treatment: challenges and opportunities. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1).
