Family_Health_Assessment

Family Health Assessment Family which is simply understood by all as a household consisting of parents, children, and probably other relations (subsystems) living in harmonious manner and as such family is therefore considered to be the social context in which health promotion and disease prevention can take place. The family’s beliefs, values and practices strongly influence the health behavior of its members. It is of this undisputed facts that poise nurses and other health professionals to embrace using family-focused approach as a priority when providing adequate family care and support (Endelman & Mandel, 2010). The US Surgeon General for many years now has continuously stressed the importance of a family getting health assessment. US Surgeon General stipulated that it has been found out that there is a family connection between many heredity diseases. Functional health patterns constitute the framework used for obtaining a structured family nursing history, to promote areas of wellness as well as health problems. The family systems theory is used as a tool in conjunction with the functional health patterns to guide the assessment of the family. Family systems theory helps the nurse to understand family interactions, along with the family’s values, beliefs, and coping mechanism (Maurer & Smith, 2008). According to Edelman & Mandle, 2010 this theory states that any change in one family member will affect the entire family unit. Family health assessment is a health assessment performed by nurses in a variety of settings, including at health fair, in the community, and schools and hospitals. It involves interviewing a patient, inspecting and observing her body and actions, and palpating and percussing parts of her body (Maurer & Smith). The family health assessment will be utilized by nurse to gather information about a patient’s condition and formulate a nursing plan of care for the patient or family. The nurse uses information collected from client, family, and community to determine actual or potential care needs and resources. A complete assessment should include physical, Psychosocial, spiritual, functional, development, and environmental factors (Maurer and Smith, 2008). This is essentially a framework of data collection focusing on the 11 functional health patterns. Gordon’s functional health patterns act as a framework to assess the health of individuals, families and communities. This Gordon’s facilitates for the adequate, effective, and accurate assessment allowing for the application of nursing diagnosis and interventions. The purpose of this paper is to complete a family health assessment using a family focused approach by utilizing Gordon’s 11 functional health patterns. The family consists of a 54 year old husband, a 44 year-old wife, a 14 year-old son, and a 12 year-old daughter. The following open-minded, family-focused questions for each of Gordon’s 11 functional health patterns was developed and used to interview this family. 1. Values, health perception: What are the religious beliefs in your family' What is your cultural group and how does it affect your health' Do you understand about your health condition' Do you use tobacco, drugs, or alcohol' Do you understand about your health condition' Do you undergo health checkups, comply with medication regimen' 2. Nutritional/Metabolic Pattern: How would you rate your family’s dietary habits' How would you rate your appetite' Have you noted any recent changes in body weight, or skin, hair, and nail textures' 3. Sleep/Rest Pattern: what is your sleep-wake cycle' Is there any member of your family with sleep disturbance' Do you think that you are physically rested and relaxed' 4. Elimination Pattern: What are your frequencies of bowel movements' Do you have any disease of the digestive system, urinary system or skin' Are your excretory functions within normal ranges' 5. Activity – Exercise Pattern: Do you have daily exercises' How important is exercise to you and your children' 6. Cognitive – Perceptual Pattern: How do you access information about health' Do you have any sensory deficit' 7. Sensory – Perception Pattern: How do you face a stressful situation' 8. Self – Perception Pattern: Do you seem comfortable with your appearance' Describe your feeling state' 9. Role – Relationship Pattern: What is the role of each family member' How do you describe each person’s various roles' Are you going through any big changes in role' 10. Sexuality – Reproductive Pattern: What is the number of pregnancy, delivery and children' Are you satisfied with your situation in relation to sexuality' Do you have any disease/ dysfunction of the reproductive system' 11. Coping – Stress Tolerance Pattern: How do you usually cope with problems' Are you experiencing any stressful situations now' Do you have any treatment for emotional distress' Summary of Assessment Outcome The family strongly believes in God as their source for help and strength. The family relies totally on the word of God as their guide/instructions in their daily living. They are strong members of their local Church and participate in all the activities of Church. This family is foster in love, trust, respect for one another and their children are raised in like manner. They perceived health as the ability to carry out ones day to day activities as usual without falling ill. They are happy and cheerful family. The family attends yearly physical examination. They family has no history of drug abuse or alcohol intake. The wife has o negative behavior of high blood pressure with the family history of cardiac problem. Meals are prepared by a member of the family usually the wife who will include the preferences of different family members. The family preferred to eat together especially during breakfast and dinner where they share their experiences. On a weekly basis the family enjoys eating in restaurant. The children and the mother get minimum of six to eight hours of sleep each night. The husband gets the habit of spending much time at night watching TV. There no cases of abnormal bowel movement reported in this family. This could be attributed to the healthy meals they consume. The family participates in weekly exercise by walking or running. The family is very supportive to each other; both the wife and husband are employed. The wife and husband participate in bill payment and they also assist the children in school assignments. They family do not have any sexual issues, husband and wife maintaining healthy sex life. Husband and wife cope up with most of the stressful situations. The members of the family are contented with their body shapes and physique. Family Nursing Diagnosis and Wellness Diagnosis 1. Alteration in bowel elimination for the husband related to inactivity and fewer intake of fiber diet. 2. Alteration in sleep pattern related to frequent staying awake at night. 3. Readiness for enhanced blood pressure 4. Readiness for enhanced wellness program of cardiac disease. Conclusion A family health assessment is important because it enables the family members to understand the causes of various health problems that may be affecting them. Studies have shown that there are close relationship between some diseases and family values. Hereditary diseases are found in the tree and it is only through family health assessment that ways of containing the disease may be found. The aspect of assessing a family can also be used to identify unhealthy habits which when identified early enough can be controlled.   References Endelman, C. L., & Mandel, C. (2010). Health Promotion Throughout the Life Span (7th ed.). St. Louis, Missouri: Mosby. Maurer, , & Smith, (2008). Community/Public Health Nursing Practice: Health for Families and Populations (4th ed.). W. B. Saunders Company.