Family Health Assessment - Essay Example

A family is a basic unit of society. It is made of members related by blood, marriage, cohabitation, or adoption. The reactions and activities of a family affect the family patterns entirely (Edelman, C. L., Mandle, C. L., et al., 2017). Health practices are the activities done by an individual or a family as a whole to improve health and prevent adverse conditions.

Family health assessment involves acquiring information from a family about illness prevention and activities that promote healthy living (Kaakinen, J. R., Coehlo, D. P., et al. 2018). These include the perception of nursing about the family constitution, norms, theoretical knowledge, communication abilities, and standards. Marjorie Gordon developed eleven functional health patterns that serve as a guideline in getting an all-inclusive nursing database (Gordon, M. 2014).

The family that I chose for this health assessment is a white American nuclear family. The family consists of a father aged 40 years and a mother aged 35 years. The two have three kids between them and who they all leave together with. The children are of age groups, a sixteen-year-old boy, a ten-year-old girl, and a five-year-old boy. The father is the family leader, but the mother is often involved in making family decisions. The mother is the leader of the family when the father is not around. Also, the father is a worker in the textile industry while the mother is a nurse in a nearby hospital. All kids attend a neighborhood public school. While the father is the primary provider, the mother always supports him financially as she is also earning.

The family portrays insufficiency in various healthcare aspects, including nutrition, sleep, and exercise. In terms of nutrition, the mother admits that the family mostly survives on fast foods. She only prepares dinner at home while they feed on snacks for the rest of the day. The father also often experiences constipation, which is more likely to be experienced by other family members. Both parents said that they sleep for less than six hours a day because of stress and work pressure. When it comes to exercise, the family mostly engages in little outdoor activities where the father and sons play football while the mother and daughter attend dancing lessons. Mostly the family takes part in sedentary sporting activities such as video games and playing cards.

This family is very religious and are firm believers of Christianity. They believe in the existence of God, who they pray for good health and healing from diseases. They also view curses from parents and ancestors as real, and they follow all the traditional procedures to appease them to avoid curses. When it comes to sexual activeness, the only family member who is sexually active apart from the mother and father is the first-born teenage son. The parents have frequently spotted him with a female friend, but this is yet to bring any trouble. It is most likely that the boy is in a relationship with a single partner. The parents aim to bring up their kids in the best way possible and invest heavily in their future.

There is no evidence about cases of violence within the family. Like any other normal children, their kids sometimes get indiscipline and defy their parents' orders, but they highly respect their parents. In such cases of indiscipline, the parents discipline the children by denying them privileges such as Wifi and playing video games. The family often experiences role conflicts because of a lack of clear task delegation in home responsibilities. This seems a bit messy as they do not clearly understand their roles. The parents have ensured that every family member has health insured in case of crisis or disaster. With this, every family member gets the best health care regardless of the financial situation. The family has an excellent relationship with their extended families and often visit them during the summer and school holidays. However, they do not depend on them for any support or resources.

The health assessment on the family history and predisposition to diseases shows that the family on the side of the mother has a history of depression and diabetes. However, these diseases are mostly viewed as lifestyle illnesses. The family needs to put the necessary measures to reduce the chances of their kids from getting these conditions in the future. Following the health care guidelines, all the family members have received all the appropriate immunization. The girl has sickle cell Anaemia from birth and has been admitted to the hospital several times. With the mother being a nurse, the family has a good perception of sickle cell Anaemia and is aware of managing the disease. The gurl also understands her condition and the restrictions, such as engaging in vigorous activities to prevent any injuries or dehydration.

Nursing Diagnosis

The father states that he often experiences constipation, but it's not very clear whether the problem affects the other members of the family. The nursing diagnosis for this is the willingness for improved defecation. With the father and mother being the primary providers, it's essential to enhance their knowledge of intestinal and nutritional health as it impacts the entire family. Although the mother is a nurse who understands various nutritional concepts, she doesn't consider the effects of a diet with no fiber. Because of this and dehydration due to a busy schedule, it is what causes constipation.

The second nursing diagnosis is the willingness for enhanced sleep. The father and mother reports say that they do not get enough sleep every night confesses of their desire to sleep more. They are mostly busy at work and doing housing cores after work. If not, they are very stressed to sleep and opt to stay up late watching tv rather than sleeping.

Finally, the general pattern of neglect of self-health care is related to self-perception. The trend will most probably lead them into more harmful behavior patterns that affect their general health. Parents need to improve their self-perception to avoid the development of such behaviors in their kids. The family hence has a nursing diagnosis of eagerness for improved self-perception.

The Role of Nursing

Nursing has the role of advancing the health of the family. Nurses have a position to offer direct and indirect healthcare to individuals and families concerning health assessment, diagnosis, treatment, implementation, and evaluation (Denham, S., Eggenberger, S., et al. 2015). The family health assessment revealed that this family has minimal risk for serious health trepidations. All their health concerns are related to stress, which is normal to a family of this level. The family members are knowledgeable enough about their health issues and are reflective enough to know their undoing and are willing to alter their health behavior patterns. This means a health care plan involving minimal intervention to sleep, nutrition, and behavior habits will help the family improve their health lifestyle quality significantly.