Family Health Assessment and Nursing Diagnosis

Family health assessment is a principal tool in comprehension of family issues for the purposes of establishing care plans with reference to their needs. Nurses play a vital role as far as health promotion is concerned (Anderson et al., 2000). Patterns of family health function as the basis of nursing diagnosis, as well as health promotion within communities in general and families in particular. Health assessment patterns constitute systematically arranged principles designed for data collection from families for interventions and diagnosis.

The family that I picked is a nuclear family composed of both parents and their children. It is a white family living in North Bay Village, in Miami-Dade County in the U.S. The father is aged forty-five, while the mother is thirty-seven. Their marriage has lasted for eighteen years. Their three children are aged seventeen, thirteen, and nine from the eldest to the youngest respectively. The last-born is a girl, while the other two are boys.

The family of five has the father as the head of the family. However, the two parents work and thus win bread for the family. Both have formal employment. Nonetheless, the father is the primary family provider. The wife does the household duties before and after work. The mother prepares the children in the morning, and then the father drives them to school. She enjoys putting her entire effort to see her family happy. The boys also assist her at some points, even though they spend most of their time at school. The daughter loves cooking and aids the mother on weekends.

The family is facing challenge since the last-born is a slow learner. The parents take this issue with much weight. At times, the father treats this case with suspicion, assuming that the child either mutated or something that medics cannot explain happened to her. The family is housed in a beautiful and expensive wooden house built for comfort and luxury. The furniture and all that is contained inside the house appeared costly. The compound, upon which the house is built, is quite large. It has a welcoming ambiance, swimming pool, playground, and an ample parking. The family head works as a bank manager, while the wife is a teacher at the elementary school within the neighborhood. The income is sufficient to provide for their children’s education and pay anything else that has to be paid. The parents have ensured that their children are well and attend school, while children have played their role through obedience, assisting with domestic chores, and attending school.

The adolescent stage of the second-born stresses him and the family at large. The inability to relate with ease to the opposite sex due to shyness has negatively impacted his learning. The issue has caused the boy stress, and, as a result, the parents get worried as well. The slow learning problem of the last-born has exert much stress on the parents as well, especially on the father.

The family is now at a developing stage (Yen, McDonald, Hirschland, & Edington, 2003). The children are now being schooled, and they need much care and responsibilities. There are many activities away from home that include working and schooling for children. The previous stages have seen proper handling since the family has been able to successfully get to these stages. For instance, during the early stages of being a couple and in the course of the parental years, the spouses have operated well, and thus were able to introduce new family members later. The family history indicates zero genetic predispositions towards diseases. The response to this issue was that the family grandparents had no diseases that could genetically be transferred to the subsequent generations.

The family concern for health forced them to ascertain that every possible action is applied to lower sickness chances. The children got immunized as required in childhood, and the family presented the records as the evidence of immunization. The family is currently immunized against tetanus and all other diseases that require immunization.

The second-born son responded that he felt inadequately when it came to relating to others at school. Talking to girls posed him a challenge, and he got stressed up regarding the situation. However, the opposite sex had no problems with him. It was he who felt shy and lost words every time he faced a girl. This issue made him drop a little in class, although it was not very alarming. Based on hospital admission questionnaire, the family responded that they have healthy eating habits, which were inspired by their comprehension of the importance of a healthy lifestyle. They purchase foods that provide balanced meals. Consequently, sickness is rarely mentioned, and if it happens, it is never serious.

The answer to the question on communication modes indicated that they use face-to-face contacts as well as mobile phones. They sit and express themselves to one another whenever there is an issue. Problems are never allowed to accumulate; they are rather solved as they appear. The parents talk to their teens and aid them in coping with any life challenges. The communication is effective and efficient as it addresses all their communication wants.

Despite the man being the family head, he never makes decisions quickly and on his own. He consults his wife and, to some extent, his children. The wife also consults her husband. The decision is usually reached via family talks in order to limit the chances of disagreements. The parents never impose anything on the teens; they rather talk to them well in order to accommodate their feeling before making a decision.

The family communication system and their organized thinking allow no violence. The understanding nature, which they are endowed with, makes them operate on humility. However, this aspect does not make them spare the child to grow within the atmosphere of indiscipline. The parents apply negative reinforcement technique to make children conform to family and societal norms. For instance, whenever a son or the daughter misbehaves, the naughty one is deprived of the chance to get goodies from parents along with the other children. On the contrary, if one does well at school, he/she gets a present to encourage him/her and make the others increase their efforts in class, understating that something precious awaits them.

The family crises receive attention depending on their weight. The parents consult or handle the problem independently and inform the other later. For instance, if the teenagers disagree to the extent of one beating the other, then the parent present solves the issue without necessarily waiting for the other.

The family goes to the house of worship, the church, and prays often. The father responded to the question about religion depicting that they believe that God loves them and that He always wants them to avoid sin. It is this belief that made the man stop smoking and drinking. The parents love one another and their children in a bid to obey God. Love and prayer environment keep them healthy.

The family goals are to see that all members live satisfactorily. Their children are acquiring proper education for a better life. The parents want to live comfortably at old age while seeing their children become independent to make fortune and their own families.

The family’s internal support is the working parents. They earn to provide for all the needs and wants of each member. The parents contribute to the children’s education and miscellaneous expenses from their respective income sources. The family does not operate on any external support. It experiences neither role conflict nor role overload. The parents run the family minus the two issues. The family is aware that contingencies arise. The family has plans that can handle any form or emergency should it arise. For instance, the parents have insurance covering the lives of the spouses should anything happen. There is also a medical cover that can pay any amount of cash for a treatment that may require a lot of expenses. The family opened an account where liquid cash is saved monthly to take care of things outside the normal operations.

The nursing diagnosis determined based on this assessment is stress resulting from the development issues of two family members. The second-born is suffering stress, which is induced by his shyness. He lacks courage at his age to stand anywhere near girls. The daughter’s inability to learn fast develops worries in the parents. Stress-free families live happily. The health status remains excellent, and functioning at home and at work becomes excellent. Stress can be managed via identification of the stressors, which, in this case, are the son’s and the daughter’s problems. The parents need to understand that the boy’s problem requires counselling in order to know means and ways of overcoming shyness and that the problem is not permanent. The slow nature of learning in the girl cannot be changed, and so the solution to this is to accept that fact and encourage her always. When stressed, the parents and the boy may apply stress management methods such as gradual muscle relaxation, stress releasing breathing techniques, biofeedback, and guided imagery.

In conclusion, nursing interventions are properly planned with the aid of health assessment. The entire family requires assessment to provide care that is family-oriented rather than task-oriented. The life of individual family members has effect on the rest. Happiness reigns whenever all members’ welfare is maintained. Thus, the family is a single unit with members being its components.