Introduction
The parents in the family focused in this study are in their 50s with three kids in their 20s. The family health assessment was conducted by use of open-ended questions that focused on the family and eleven preselected functional health patterns. The key informant was the mother. The covered functional health patterns are values and health perception, nutrition, sleep and rest, activity and exercise, cognitive, sensory and perception, self perception, role relationship, sexuality and coping. The questions used are given in the attachment. This essay summarizes the findings for the functional health pattern and gives wellness and family nursing diagnoses made.
Values and Health Perception
The family values health and preempts ill health through health foods and regular exercises. They visit the family doctor for prescriptions and sometimes use alternative remedies. However, it is a challenge to get the right herbs and the children do not believe in the herbs. The family worries about the high cost of health care services despite having a good insurance cover.
Nutrition
The family eats three meals a day and incorporate vegetables and fruits. The wife occasionally takes four meals a day as management for her diabetes to avoid hypoglycemia. Meat is an important part of their diet, and since they are not choosy, they eat a variety of types including pork, beef, chicken and turkey. The family has good nutritional habits, and no one has a problem with weight management.
Sleep and Rest
The mother encourages the children to get good rest and sleeps for 8 hours a day. The husband’s work schedule involves long hours and when he gets time he sleeps for over 8 hours. The family chores make it hard to take naps, but the family gets sufficient rest.
Elimination
The family diet has a lot of fruits and fiber to enhance bowel movement. Consequently, there have never been any problems in the family with elimination. The mother has at least one bowel movement every day. Additionally, the problem has no history of urinary problems. The mother asserts that they drink a lot of water to reduce urinary problems.
Activity and Exercise
All family members attend a gym. The parents have a personal physical exercise trainer once a week to help with their exercise routines while the children are active in running and weight lifting. The family also takes mini-vacations such as fishing trips that provide a good time for family bonding and exercises.
Cognitive
Reading the children books before bed every night was an important family activity when their children were small. The family has strong cognitive functional health. The parents are nurses while the children have post high school education level. The paternal grandmother is 70 years old and lives in New York alone while the maternal grandmother lives in Philippines and occasionally takes a four hour bus ride to the provinces alone. This demonstrates that the family has no history of diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer, which impair cognitive abilities. The family members have no history of anxiety or disturbed thought processes.
Sensory and Perception
The mother asserts that all family members have a high pain tolerance and, therefore do not rush small issues to the ER. The mother suffers from diabetes and the farther from hypertension, and they regularly take medicine to control these chronic conditions. Their nursing training enables them to deal with simple health issues at home.
Self Perception
The parents are both nurses working in critical care. Work is the greatest stressor in this family followed by thoughts of life after retirement since the parents are in their 50s. The mother has an enhanced self-perception and considers her family healthy apart from the diabetes and hypertension. Since the parents are well into their 50s, physical looks is not a significant problem as when they were younger. This promotes self esteem and reduces the feeling of hopelessness and suicidal tendencies this contributes to the overall family wellness (Martin et al., 2012).
Role Relationship
The husband is the head of the family and the key decision maker by mutual agreement with the wife. This clearly defined role relationship has promoted cohesion in the family unit (Shapiro, 2013). The husband is also the chief disciplinarian in the family and has always encouraged openness in the family when discussing problems. This openness makes the family members to feel ease to discuss any topic.
Sexuality
Although the family’s custom does not recognize sex as a valid discussion topic on the family table, the father has gone past this and constantly reminds the children of the importance of safe sex. Although the frequency of sex has reduced with age, the parents are comfortable with their sexuality.
Coping
The family has had deaths in the recent past, and this had been hard times for the family. However, talking about the loss helps the family to overcome grief. Additionally, the family observes souls day and light candles in honor of their dead loved ones. The family also uses religious faith to cope with traumatizing events. They are devoted Catholics and involve the family priest to help cope with trying situations.
Wellness and Family Nursing Diagnoses
Wellness nursing diagnoses refers to clinical judgments in response to the need to have higher health status (Gordon, 2010). The first wellness nursing diagnosis made is enhanced safety precaution during physical exercises by increasing the use of trainers. All family members are active in physical activities. However, this comes with the risk of injury during sports. The parents have a personal trainer to help them with their physical exercises, but the children who practice weight lifting and running do not. Incorporating a personal trainer for all children will enhance safety and wellness. Another wellness nursing diagnosis made is enhanced sexuality patterns by maintaining good mental and physical health. Mental and physical well being such as the ability to do strenuous physical activities can enhance sexual patterns by creating capacity to have sexual intercourse (Syme et al., 2013).
The other wellness nursing diagnosis made is enhanced social interaction by improving role performance, and regular family meeting especially now that some of the children are leaving away from the parents. This will improve role performance and tighten family relationships. The final wellness and family nursing diagnosis made is enhanced health seeking behavior by visiting the family physician more often. Currently, the family visits the family physician when they are sick. This shows a neglect of primary healthcare services such as preventive care. Enhanced visits to the family physician will promote preventive care and improve well being.
References
Gordon, M. (2010). Manual of nursing diagnosis.New York, NY; Jones & Bartlett Learning. Martin, C. T., Keswick, J. L., Crayton, D., & LeVeck, P. (2012). Perceptions of Self‐Esteem in a
Welfare‐To‐Wellness‐To‐Work Program. Public Health Nursing, 29(1), 19-26.
Shapiro, E. R. (2013). Nurturing Family Resilience in Response to Chronic Illness: An
Integrative Approach to Health and Growth Promotion. In Handbook of Family Resilience (pp. 385-408). Springer New York.
Syme, M. L., Klonoff, E. A., Macera, C. A., & Brodine, S. K. (2013). Predicting sexual decline
and dissatisfaction among older adults: The role of partnered and individual physical and mental health factors. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 68(3), 323-332.
