Family Health Assessment

Family Health Assessment
Family which is simply understood by all as a household consisting of parents, children, and probably other relations (subsystems) living in harmonious manner and as such family is therefore considered to be the social context in which health promotion and disease prevention can take place. The family’s beliefs, values and practices strongly influence the health behavior of its members. It is of this undisputed facts that poise nurses and other health professionals to embrace using family-focused approach as a priority when providing adequate family care and support (Endelman & Mandel, 2010). The US Surgeon General for many years now has continuously stressed the importance of a family getting health assessment. US Surgeon General stipulated that it has been found out that there is a family connection between many heredity diseases.
Functional health patterns constitute the framework used for obtaining a structured family nursing history, to promote areas of wellness as well as health problems. The family systems theory is used as a tool in conjunction with the functional health patterns to guide the assessment of the family. Family systems theory helps the nurse to understand family interactions, along with the family’s values, beliefs, and coping mechanism (Maurer & Smith, 2008). According to Edelman & Mandle, 2010 this theory states that any change in one family member will affect the entire family unit.   Family health assessment is a health assessment performed by nurses in a variety of settings, including at health fair, in the community, and schools and hospitals. It involves interviewing a patient, inspecting and observing her body and actions, and palpating and percussing parts of her body (Maurer & Smith).   The family health assessment will be utilized by nurse to gather information about a patient’s condition and formulate a nursing plan of care for the patient or family.   The nurse uses information collected from client,...