NSG 222 – Family Nursing
This course introduces the student to family-centered care and the health needs of the childbearing family. Students review concepts, skills, and techniques needed to care for culturally diverse maternal, infant, and pediatric patients and their families. The nursing process is utilized to emphasize the concepts of family-centered care, collaboration, communication, cultural competence, and community. The clinical experiences focus on concepts and skills required to provide safe and evidence-based care in a variety of clinical settings.
Sample Family Nursing Paper
Approaches to Family Nursing
Introduction
Family health nursing encompasses the provision of healthcare needs to families. It has its roots in contemporary society from prehistoric times. Over the decade, the role of women has been interwoven within the limits of a family as a unit (Seuneke and Bock, 2015). However, in the modern society, families are growing gradually as units that require extended care, both within the confines of family members as well as from nursing practitioners. Today, family healthcare nurses act as case finders, surrogates, epidemiologists, supervisors of healthcare resources, and environmental specialists. Nevertheless, there are several challenges to family health care nursing. First, there has been limited teaching programs in nursing curricula. Secondly, documentation puts more emphasis on individuals rather than family units. Finally, nursing units revolve around diseases and people. There are four approaches to family health care nursing that includes family as a client, family as context, family as a system, and family as a component of society (Munro et al., 2016). The purpose of this paper is to discuss interventions implemented in the four approaches. Moreover, the paper aims at exploring the different roles within a family and the roles played by family healthcare nurses.
Family as Context
The approach focuses on assessing and caring for a patient. In this case, the family either acts as a stressor or a resource. A fifteen-year-old son in a family of four had diabetes and the family sort to acquire nursing care. The school going teen experienced damaged blood vessels, nerve and feet complications, and kidney problems. The parents provided a proper and balanced diet to the patient. Moreover, they ensured that the child’s basic needs including adequate shelter, clothing, and food were met. The sister to the diabetic child expressed affection and companionship.
Family Health Care Nursing Intervention
In responding to the child’s health condition and needs, I assessed for signs of hyperglycemia. The rationale for this intervention was based on the fact that hyperglycemia results from the insufficient amount of insulin in the blood (Kremers et al., 2015). Excess glucose causes high osmotic effects, hence increasing thirst, urination rate, and hunger. I enquired for cases of fatigue and unclear vision.
Family as Client
The approach assesses the entire family. The nursing practitioner focuses on finding the impact an illness brings to all members of a family beyond the affected patient. In this case, the family is the foreground while the client is the background. Health care is provided to every member of the household (Munro et al., 2016). An individual was diagnosed with Alzheimer, a common form of dementia that results in memory loss and brain damage.
Family Health Care Nursing Intervention
In responding to this case, I sort to acquire more information on the impacts the diagnosis had brought among all family members. The patient explained that the entire family had been emotionally affected by the news. Moreover, family relationships had been weakened, as evident from increased stress and tension. Finally, the family encountered financial problems since a lot of money was being used in meeting regular health checkups. Therefore, I provided comprehensive counseling programs to the entire family as well as to the patient. Counseling is efficient in improving the health of the patient as it help in reducing depression (Svavarsdottir et al., 2015).
Family as System
The approach focuses on the family as a client which forms an interactional system. Nursing interventions are products of all conducted health assessments. During the implementation of interventions, interactions may either be direct or indirect.
Family Health Care Nursing Intervention
A child suffered from Asperger’s syndrome, and interventions seek to respond to two issues. First, the notable changes between the spouses from the moment the child was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, and second, the manner in which the entire family is functioning and how members are relating with each other.
Family as Component of Society
The approach views the family as an institution in society. Indeed, a family unit communicates with other systems to provide and acquire useful information and other services. Community health nursing focuses on the interactions between communities and families (Mohammed and Kamel, 2015). As an important family healthcare intervention, a family had to use available community resources to care for a member of their family who had been diagnosed with lung cancer.
Family Health Care Nursing Intervention
The family regularly took the patient to a senior public center and caregiver training classes where he would have conducive environments to acquire health programs, proper dietary advice, information, and assistance. These community resources were instrumental as they reduced family expenses in lung cancer therapy and improved patient’s response to medication. Moreover, they provided a strategy to combat stress. Nevertheless, the family and the patient encountered few challenges in their pursuit to obtain these resources. Some community members feared to be in close contact with both the family and the patient. Besides, the family consumed a lot of time in the entire exercise of obtaining these community resources.
