Approaches To Family Nursing Paper

Approaches to Family Nursing

The purpose of this paper is to discuss four different health care approaches used when working with a patient and family based on my clinical experiences. I will also describe the interventions I used in each approach. It is important for the nurse to recognize that there are many issues to take into consideration when deciding an approach to providing family health care. The approaches that will be discussed in this paper include: Family as a Context, Family as a Client, Family as a System, and lastly, Family as a Component of Society. I will use examples from my family and from patients and the family’s I have encountered.

Family as Context

Family as a Context is health care focused on one individual in a family,

My dad was diagnosed with severe blockage to three cardiac arteries. Unfortunately, he had been sick over the years and barely weighed 100 pounds. Additionally, they thought he might have tuberculosis, and had put him on a plethora of medications for this. We were all very worried he may not live until surgery to repair the arteries. As a result, myself and my siblings all jumped on a plane to go visit him. It was extremely difficult to see how thin he was, and as it turned out, he was not well enough for surgery right away. The inventions we undertook included a visit to our parents’ home to see accommodations were needed when dad was able to return home. We learned that my mother had not been faring well mentally with dad’s condition and her finances were a mess. She was not able to focus and had not been paying bills. Also, her car was falling apart and she had no money to purchase a new one. Her stress level was at maximum and she became grossly agitated as we tried to sort things out. We had to divide and conquer, as a family, to provide help due to mother’s health issue, with my sisters intervened by taking mother to the physician to adjust her medication. My brother and I intervened by getting the bills paid and buying her a new car which she would need to get

These approaches were: Family as a Context, Family as a Client, Family as a System, and Family as a Component of Society. In each case the role of the nurse focused on a different person, or persons in a family. The nurse will draw on experiences and use learned communication skills to listen to concerns being expressed and determine the best way to accommodate family needs. In each case, there were different interventions used, with each intervention appropriate to the patient or family member needs. The nurse must recognize that the needs of a family may morph over time with a need to adjust to these changes as they happen. The role of the nurse is ever changing and, as such, the nurse shall be watchful of changes in a family dynamic and identify when to shift the focus of family