Family Assessment and Nursing Process

Essay by nancymardUniversity, Bachelor's July 2014

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Family Assessment and Nursing Process

According to Stanhope & Lancaster (2001), a family nursing assessment is considered to be the cornerstone for family nursing interventions and is used in a systematic fashion for the identification of the family's developmental stages and risk factors. There are many tools available that provide guidelines for how to best get to know a family and to determine their strengths and weaknesses. One such tool is the Friedman Family Assessment tool which provides a guideline for nurses to interview a family. Theory is also a necessary tool when assessing a family because it is theory that most powerfully explains clinical situations and provides guidelines when working with families (Friedman, Bowden, and Jones, 2003). The theory that will be applied to family assessment in this paper is the structural-functional theory. The structural-functional theory recognizes the interaction between family members within their internal and external environment (Friedman et al.,

2003). Once a comprehensive family assessment is complete and health issues are identified, the nursing process is implemented in order to render care that is imperative for assisting each family member to achieve an optimum level of wellness (Gilliss & Davis, 1993).

In compliance with HIPPA regulations of strict confidentiality, the fictitious name of Listo will be used to identify the family that is assessed in this report. The Friedman Family assessment model will be followed as a guideline to discuss the family's identifying data, the structure-function of the family members, and how the family handles stress, coping and adaptation. Lastly, key assessment data will be used in the nursing process in order to assess, diagnose, plan, intervene, and evaluate a family member's diagnosis.

The Listo family is an extended family that is composed of a marital dyad, their two adult sons, the maternal grandmother and the...