Family assessment is crucial as it helps address the issues affecting family members. According to Mansfield et al. (2019, p. 825), this type of assessment provides the nurse a “multidimensional view into the family’s life”. Similarly, nursing interventions for health promotion ensures the family members develops a clear understanding of their emotional and physical well-being. Nevertheless, this paper attempts to describe the structure of the family in which the respondents were interviewed, to summarize the general health behavior, to provide an in-depth description of two functional health patterns and the application of the family system theory. Therefore, when conducting a family interview, it is imperative to focus on key attributes such as nutrition, exercise, role relationship, cognitive and health perception which affect the family’s overall health.
Family Structure
The family interviewed, the Jason family, comprises of four members: father, mother, and a 12 and 5- year old boys. The family has been living in a three-bedroom house for the past 10 years. They are of Asian-Indian origin – they migrated to the U.S 20 years ago. They follow and worship Sikhism, a type of religion whose origin is in the Punjab region. The father owns a sanitary ware shop with the wife working as a registered nurse in one of the healthcare facilities in the region. They are a middle class family who works extra hard to ensure their children receive high quality education. Their children go to school by bus while the wife’s workplace is 20-minutes’ drive away. Overall, Jason family was very generous and welcoming and was more than willing to share their life story.
Family Health and Health Behaviors
The Jason family is more cautious about their health, especially since the mother is a registered nurse. She places huge amount of emphasis on nutrition, elimination, activity, cognitive, sensory perception, self-perception, role relationship, sexuality, and coping. The parents constantly educate their children the importance of making healthy choices to eschew lifestyle diseases. As evidenced in the interview, the family always strives to maintain a balanced diet comprising of fruits, vegetables, protein and carbs. According to the husband, having a diet rich in nutrients helps ensure they remain physically and mentally active. On the issue of sleep, the family usually sleeps for about 10 hours every day. However, the children are allowed to take naps during the day, especially during weekends and holidays. As for elimination, the members tend to visit the bathroom up to six times a day. The family takes seriously any incontinence, especially for their children. The family takes physical activities very seriously-they occasionally participate in exercises such as cardio at least thrice a week.
All the family members, including the children can read and write well. Similarly, there are no issues of forgetfulness in the family. Additionally, the Jason family has no issues with their senses – they perceive illness when a member feels weak or lacks appetite. Also, each family member has a role to play in the house, especially during weekends where everyone participates in the cleaning. The husband and wife view sexuality as a feeling that has helped their family stay together. Currently, the family is healthy and relies on the wife and mother for any advice regarding the health issues.
Findings
The two functional health pattern strengths of the Jason family, based on the questionnaire, are Sleep/Rest and Activity/Exercise. On sleep, the family gets enough sleep as per their physician’s recommendation. However, Twenge et al. (2019) notes that children aged 2-5 years should sleep for a maximum of 13 hours. This explains why the five-year boy takes naps during the day-for about 30 minutes. In essence, the family sleep functional health pattern is strong which ensure they remain mentally active and healthier. On the issue of exercise, the father is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the members go out on walks or gym for about one hour. Although the mother does not like exercising a lot, she made it a routine to walk to work on Thursdays.
The three areas in which barriers were noticeable are cognition, coping and nutrition. Firstly, on cognition, English is their second language which sometimes affects their ability to communicate with their care provider. Secondly, on coping, the family requires more education on the different types of coping skills such as meditation (Janah, & Hargiana, 2021). Lastly, their nutrition consists of more carbohydrates since they rely more on fast-food.
Application of Family Systems Theory
Family system theory can be applied to solicit changes in family members and, return, achieve significant impact to the whole family functions. Bowen’s family systems theory can be used to help analyze problems affecting this family. For instance, the theory holds that by modifying one subsystem of family, the other parts of the system will be affected (Jakimowicz et al., 2021). By observing the emotions of the family system, one is able to understand the behaviors of individual members. A good example here is when one member, such as the father, decides to take part in physical exercises; his action will have an impact on the whole family.
Conclusion
Family assessment plays a crucial role in helping address issues affecting family members and, in this case, the Jason family. As evidenced above, family is more cautious about their health, especially since the mother is a registered nurse. She places huge amount of emphasis on nutrition, elimination, activity, cognitive, sensory perception, self-perception, role relationship, sexuality, and coping. These attributes are critical when it comes to ensuring the members lead a healthy life-style.
References
Jakimowicz, S., Perry, L., & Lewis, J. (2021). Bowen Family Systems Theory: Mapping a framework to support critical care nurses’ well‐being and care quality. Nursing Philosophy, 22(2), 12-20. Web.
Janah, M., & Hargiana, G. (2021). Levels of stress and coping strategies in family caregivers who treat schizophrenic patients with risk of violent behavior. Journal of Public Health Research, 10(1), 24-44. Web.
Mansfield, A. K., Keitner, G. I., & Sheeran, T. (2019). The brief assessment of family functioning scale (BAFFS): A three-item version of the general functioning scale of the family assessment device. Psychotherapy Research, 29(6), 824-831. Web.
Twenge, J. M., Hisler, G. C., & Krizan, Z. (2019). Associations between screen time and sleep duration are primarily driven by portable electronic devices: Evidence from a population-based study of US children ages 0–17. Sleep Medicine, 56, 211-218. Web.