Essay Sample on Family Health Nursing

Introduction

Family health nursing involves a philosophy that determines how nurses interact with clients by collecting information, advocating for patients, intervening with patients, and connecting spiritually with families to provide healthcare needs. This philosophy offers that health matters affect the family as a unit claiming that health issues form part of the family events and that family plays a significant role in influencing the process and outcome of patients (Kaakinen et al., 2018). Family health involves the promotion and maintenance of mental, physical, spiritual, and social health of the family unit in general and individual family member in particular. Family health nursing, therefore, focuses on the health care services towards the family as a unit with health as the primary objective to ensure optimal functioning. Family health nursing identifies nursing needs and provides appropriate health and nursing services for the family. This paper seeks to discuss the interventions implemented in the four approaches of family health nursing that includes family as a context, family as a system, family as a client, and family as a component of society.

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Family as the Context

In this case, the nurse views the family as the context with a primary focus on the individual existing within the family to assess the health and development, placing the family as the background and the relationship between the client and the members of the family as foreground. This context requires the nurse to focus on an individual's health status and how the family offers basic needs and psychological needs. As a clinical practitioner, I interacted with a school-aged child who was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The child was suffering from carelessness, lack of attention, poor organizational skills, restlessness, and edginess. The family offered a safe environment by channeling his energy into positive activities, maintaining calm and keeping things in perspective (AlAzzam & ALBashtawy, 2016). The family also provided basic needs such as shelter and adequate balanced diet for the child. The child's perceptions of the family's influence on his development, illness, health, and treatment were the essential information for assessment (AlAzzam & ALBashtawy, 2016). I viewed the family's relationship from the perspective of the child. The advantage of this approach of the family as a context is that it is less expensive and applies less statistical problems than studying the family as a unit. Another advantage of this approach is the ease to obtain information.

Family as a Client

In this approach, the family is the foreground while the individuals are the background, and the focus is on how each affects the entire family. In this case, the nurse is interested in how the family members are individually affected by the hospitalization of one member of the family unit. As a clinical practitioner, I interacted with a family where the breadwinner who happened to the father was diagnosed with chronic cancer. The client admitted that the family members were devastated with the sad news and they were worried about how their lives would be without their sole breadwinner. With time the family members started accepting his condition and instead resorted to giving the best help they could. The family suffered a significant blow because the patient had to be admitted for occasional critical care that resulted in psychosocial issues such as anxiety, fatigue and financial burden (Arestedt et al., 2015).

Family as a System

In this approach, the whole family is the patient and nurses focus on both the individual and the family at the same time. Nurses focus on the interaction between family members because it provides that when something happens to a part of the system, the whole system is affected. From personal experience, I have witnessed how different family reacts when a family member becomes ill. For instance, as a nurse, I saw a family crumble when the father was diagnosed with HIV. The wife was in total shock because she could not believe the level of betrayal shown by her husband. The children were confused and shaken, heartbroken by the news and disbelief that their loving father was a victim of a sexually transmitted disease. Despite the shock, the family members especially the children agreed to take care of their father.

Family as a Component of the Society

This refers to the aspect of Community health nursing and may include offering a support group for a patient or family with their diagnosis. The family unit is considered one of the institutions of the society along with religious, educational, health and economic institutions. In this case, as a practitioner, I advised a family to seek the services of community nursing resources for a patient who was suffering from dementia and had problems with memory, behavior, and thinking. The family members experienced difficulties of maintaining the quality of life for both the patient and I advised them to seek help from Alzheimer's support group. The family did not experience any problem finding the help of the group because there was one located around their neighborhood. Some of the services they received from the group were training, information, emotional support and sharing during the painful journey of the patient (Greiner et al., 2014). The services were sufficient for the patient and the family members because the overall quality of life of the patient improved and it also reduced some of the financial burdens they were facing.

Conclusion

In conclusion, nurses interact with families to provide quality health care services because health issues affect the family as a whole unit. Family health nursing, therefore, identifies the nursing needs and incorporates the different approaches to family nursing by offering appropriate services for the entire family. The modern day family plays a significant role in influencing the type of process, and the quality of health care services offered to a patient and that is why nurses assess the progress of patients through family relationships.

References

AlAzzam, M., & ALBashtawy, M. (2016). Family approaches to dealing with a child's ADHD. J Fam Health, 26(5), 29-33.

Arestedt, L., Benzein, E., & Persson, C. (2015). Families living with chronic illness: beliefs about illness, family, and health care. Journal of Family Nursing, 21(2), 206-231.

Greiner, M. A., Qualls, L. G., Iwata, I., White, H. K., Molony, S. L., Sullivan, M. T., ... & Setoguchi, S. (2014). Predicting nursing home placement among home-and community-based services program participants. The American journal of managed care, 20(12), e535-6.

Kaakinen, J. R., Coehlo, D. P., Steele, R., & Robinson, M. (2018). Family health care nursing: Theory, practice, and research. FA Davis.