Family health assessment focuses on utilizing an all-inclusive approach that ensures the health of families

Family Assessment

Name

Institution

Family Assessment

Family health assessment focuses on utilizing an all-inclusive approach that ensures the health of families, communities, and individuals with the aim of ensuring that care remains client-centered. It further aims at ensuring that families understand their health needs and address the health issues using a well-organized intervention program. The research revealed that many vulnerable people may require a supportive and an on-going intervention program to guarantee sustainable health status. For instance, using the questionnaire’s assessment of a Hispanic family, it becomes easy to understand and assess family health.

To begin, the family composition is as follow. The family has a father aged 45, mother aged 38, four children, two boys (10 and 8 years) and two girls (17 and 14 years). The entire family members are in good health apart from the 10 years boy. The ten year old boy was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 5 years old and later diagnosed with OCD at the age 7. Regarding the manner in which the family manages their health, it is noteworthy that the family scores themselves 7 in a scale of 1 to 10. In the past five years, the family still scored 6.8 in a similar scale of 1 to 10. The family also does not utilize alcohol, smoke or any other kind of drugs. The father suffers from minor thalassemia, which is a genetic disorder inherited from his father. The father is usually fatigued most of the time as a result of this genetic disorder. The 14 years old daughter also inherited the blood disorder from the father when she was young and her blood hemoglobin was low. The mother seems to be in good health, though, she has minor gastroesophageal reflux disease and she takes medication every day (Davies & Janosik, 1991). The 8 years boy and the 10 years are in good health. The entire family engages in exercise at least two three day a week.

Secondly, the family tries to eat healthy diets every day. The father is the breadwinner of the family and ensures that his entire family members eat healthy meals. The family takes lots of fruits and vegetables. The father also plays a major role in the preparation of food, which helps ensure that the kids eat healthy. The father also plays the role of ensuring that everyone receives the right quantity of food and drinks a lot of water. For instance Gordon’s assessment tool refers to influences that trigger low or high food intake, which are knowledge of food preparation, and family values among others. With regard to the research carried through the questionnaire provided, it is clear that the father plays an essential role in ensuring that the family consumes healthy meals. In addition, the person preparing the food, securing and serving plays an important role in determining the food intake. The father is a positive influence with regard to healthy food intake (Jean, 2001).

Thirdly, the elimination pattern depends on a particular family’s, for instance, in this Hispanic family; the father has a regular bowel movement after breakfast every morning. The mother and the younger daughter experiences constipation, and the other three children have at least a bowel movement daily. They have not also noticed any cases of voiding recently. The appearance of their urine is yellow, but has no sediments. They also have no pain when urinating for all the family members. The family has an active lifestyle although, they do not engage in exercise activity regularly. They enjoy activities such as biking, hiking, swimming and camping. The parents usually exercise using the elliptical. The children engage in various kinds of other activities such as piano, basketball, football, and piano lessons (William, 2003). They also watch television, play video games, which they consider as the rewards. Generally, all these family activities help in uniting and building trust within the family.

For this family, the quality and quantity of sleep is adequate since children sleep routinely. The children sleep for roughly 9 to 10 hours every night. The parents have enough sleep since they sleep for roughly 6 hours. Since the mother works as a nurse, she lacks enough sleep at times because she sometimes goes for night shift. This creates a potential problem because the mother sometimes lacks enough sleep since she must also help with the housework during the day.

Regarding the roles and relationships in the family, the mother plays the role of as the main bread winner and the father provides care to all the family members. The teenagers may help with household chores and ensure that the other two siblings do the right thing after schooling. The mother has a lot of issues running in her mind because she has numerous roles to play in the family and attend to patients at the hospital too. However, they all have way of coping and managing stress. When asked how they manage stress, they indicated that it took them so long to effective find ways of stress management. They said that one of the strategies they use is spending time with friends or close family friends. Another is accepting that stress is part and parcel of everyone’s life. They also indicated that stress should not be allowed to affects how the family handles everyday activities.

Summery

The totality of the interaction between individuals with their environment is based on the family health assessment. This provides the basis on which nurses get the opportunity to evaluate their clients and help in decision making processes. This family presently has a good health status because they do not have any bad illnesses. They exercise at least thrice a week, which makes them at least health conscious. The family also does not consume alcohol, tobacco and other related drugs (William, 2003). They also consume a lot of vegetables and engage in various forms of exercise that help the entire family remain fit.

Regarding the nursing diagnosis, it is clear that all are based on the anxiety, which manifests as a result of being out of works and difficulty in sleep. It is also based on the sleeping patterns and verbalization of stress by the father. Since the father has recently lost his job, there are many stress related disorder since he finds it difficult addressing all the family roles (Weber, 2009).

With regard to plans and family health strategies that are appropriate, it is clear that numerous family health strategies are applicable. The major problem is loss of job to the father, which makes it difficult to care for the family as he would have wished. The anxiety is likely to reduce if the father goes to employment agencies that can help in finding another job. This will keep the father occupied and meet the needs of his family. The mother also needs to work under alternate shifts, which is possible by following a specific schedule. This will allow her to do some household chores without feeling stressed. It will also strengthen the family further and reduce her exhaustion. This is achievable by incorporating all the members of the family (Bomar, 1996).

Conclusion

This assessment framework is essential since it helps in making an appropriate family diagnosis. It helps also in determining the psychological and psychosocial functioning of the family members and determine the best diagnosis. It has further provided relevant information of family members, which is essential in determining a diagnosis of the evaluated situation. It also helps by highlighting the roles of the members of the family by ensuring that everyone is responsible in the family setting.

References

Bomar, P. J. (1996). Nurses and family health promotion: Concepts, assessment, and interventions. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders.

Davies, J. L., & Janosik, E. H. (1991). Mental health and psychiatric nursing: A caring approach. Boston: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Jean, H.R. (2001). Childhood residence ratterns:  evidence from the National Longitudinal Surveys of Work Experience of Youth.  Columbus, OH:  CHRR, the Ohio State University.

Weber, J. (2009). Nurses’ handbook of health assessment. Philadelphia, Pa: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

William, R. M. (2003). Sibling influences on the career plans of male and female youth.  Columbus, OH:  CHRR, the Ohio State University.