Family And Nursing: Approaches To Family Nursing

In family nursing, there are several approaches that are fundamental for the nurse to be knowledgeable about. In this paper, four approaches to family nursing will be discussed. Family as a context, family as a client, family as a system, and family as a component of society. Along with discussing these approaches to family nursing, examples will be provided in order to enhance clarification and understanding of the topics.

Family as a Context

Family as a context, also known as family centered or family focused nursing, focuses on the assessment and care of an individual client where the family is a context (Kaakinen, 2015). In this approach, the family can serve in a positive and/or negative context to a member’s health or illness. While the

In this approach, the nurse targets their nursing interventions towards the interactions between the family members (Kaakinen, 2015). The family as a system approach is demonstrated by a scenario that is quite personal. In 2014, my sister was diagnosed with herpes simplex two at age 15 and as one might imagine, this diagnosis was a shock to the entire immediate family. There was a vast amount of education provided to our family by the hospital staff regarding the condition, how her life will be affected, new medications, etc. While my sister was the main patient, our family as a whole was included because we were all affected due to sharing a house, bathroom,

Family is a basic unit of society and is included in the larger societal system. For this approach I will be continuing using the scenario mentioned in the above approach, family as a system. My sister had been diagnosed with herpes simplex two in 2014 and this diagnosis affected the entire family, especially my sister and mother. For a while, my mother and sister were not on good terms. My mother was upset and disappointed, my sister was embarrassed.

Traditionally, society has negative views of the herpes condition and those living with it. According to Bobrow (2016), the stigma associated with genital herpes (HSV) often leads those living with the sexually transmitted infection (STI) to conceal this in order to avoid possible negative social repercussions. My sister is the only one who discloses her status and that’s if she chooses to do so. As a family unit we are protective of her and do not give away any information without her permission so that she is not viewed in a negative light for something she did not choose to