Family Composition
A family under the evaluation consists of three members: a mother, a father, and their son. This nuclear family is considered multinational as the 31-year-old mother is Chinese and 38-year-old father is American. Each of the family members performs a certain role. In particular, the father acts as the leader and manages the decision-making process. However, he understands that his wife’s opinion also matters, especially when it comes to some difficult decisions like a car purchase. Working as a senior manager for a middle-sized company, the father acts as the primary provider of the family. At the same time, the mother has no income. She cares for home and volunteers in the community help center. Their 14-year-old son studies at school.
Psychological and Physical Conditions
Among physical conditions that impact family function, one can note inappropriate living situation. The house they live in is an old building that was constructed with the use of asbestos. Currently, it produces dust causing discomfort in the family members. However, the family has no chances to move because of their unstable financial situation that, in turn, causes a number of psychological factors that affect the functioning of the family. The fact that they cannot afford more suitable housing causes frustration in the father and stress in two other members of the family.
Developmental Issues
Speaking of accomplishment of age-appropriate developmental tasks, it is necessary to emphasize that the family passes the teenage child stage. The mother consciously cares about family welfare preparing food and clothes and discussing everyday issues. In his turn, although the father has to work overtime to provide the family with necessary financial resources, he tries to communicate with them asking for their expectations and concerns. In this connection, it is possible to state that the son has enough attention from parents and develops appropriately. In general, the developmental states of the family members create no stress.
Genetic Predisposition
The background information of the family shows that several relatives had chronic diseases related to the heart. Some representatives of the family had a tendency to corpulence suffering from overweight and obesity. At the same time, there are no registered cases of infectious diseases such as HIV or AIDS.
Hospital Admission
The immunization status of the family is characterized by timely vaccination. The mother suffers from chronic arthritis experiencing pain in joints that especially increases at night. She visits her doctor once a month to receive a consultation and further recommendations. The father visits the psychologist to prevent working burnout caused by overtime. Their son has some problems with concentration and learning. However, no definite diagnosis was made by his physician. The boy currently passes through a number of examinations. Also, he suffers from sudden onsets of breathlessness from time to time. As a rule, these attacks are followed by hospital admission and a new wave of stress in parents.
Family Communication
As it was mentioned earlier, communication is an integral component of the family’s everyday life. The mother acts as the main communicator encouraging others to share their beliefs, ideas, and experience. Having enough time to spend it with her husband and son, she provides the family with a strong basis for the future effective collaboration. The father tries to support her initiative in spite of the fact that he tends to come home late.
As a result, the relationships between them seem to be trustful, open, and close. The only alarming signal is that the son enters the teenage years and shows some extent of age-related refusal to communicate with parents under the influence of his peers. This is expressed in refusing to tell about his daily activities or progress at school. In response, the mother uses the consensual model of communication valuing open conversation and conformity to the family experience.
Decision-Making Process
In this family, it is considered that the wife is the key provider of communication and decision-making. She identifies necessary issues that need to be resolved stimulating the process of decision-making. However, she cannot decide herself as this is the responsibility of the father. These roles are clearly stated in the family. There is no evidence of violence as the appropriate authoritative forms of discipline are used. Each member of the family understands their responsibility area. Therefore, it is possible to state that the family has certain skills and tools for effective communication and copes with crisis well if required. There is no role in overload or role conflict.
Cultural and Religious Factors
The multinational families tend to experience some difficulties on the basis of their different cultural backgrounds. In this connection, it seems appropriate to point out key features of Chinese and American cultures. For example, the Chinese use the indirect style of communication while Americans the direct ones. The direct style is associated with the expression of the true intentions of the person. It is a peculiarity of the American culture that leaves little room for understatements.
Americans tend to call a person on straight and clear conversations. Such style takes great care to preserve the position of the speaker during the conversation. In its turn, the indirect style enables people to hide their desires, needs, and goals during communication. In such cultures, preference is given to indirect and ambiguous communication that is dictated by the importance of respecting the other person’s position. As for the religious factor, it is not likely to affect the family as all the members consider themselves atheists.
External and Internal Support
The core family goal focuses on the provision of adequate and timely communication that is expected to ensure close relationships. With this in mind, the family tries to establish and maintain appropriate communication with relatives and friends. This strategy promotes help from the mentioned groups that is undoubtedly beneficial for the family. For example, parents can count on their external support in some cases.
Identified Diagnoses
Considering the above assessment, it is possible to specify the following nursing diagnoses: stress overload, anxiety, and risk for allergy response. It was revealed that stress overload in father is caused by the excessive working time necessary to ensure the family’s well-being. Anxiety occurs in all family members due to the impossibility to improve their living conditions and obtain new housing. This leads to continued concern about the problem and dissatisfaction of the basic human needs. According to Blair (2012), not only adults but also children are affected by the mentioned issue. Furthermore, the evaluation shows that the son is under the risk of allergy response as a result of continuous dust appearing at home. His sudden onsets of breathlessness are likely to be the result of inappropriate living conditions.
Care Plan for Future Wellness
The first problem of stress requires using some strategies and techniques to prevent stress overload. Clark and Pelicci (2011) state that the majority of working people believe that their work interferes with their personal lives. At this point, the experts suggest solving these problems radically or symptomatically. The radical approach is based on the change of attitude to the problem and attempts to assess the situation objectively. The symptomatic approach focuses on a set of measures to reduce stress overload by often change the type of activity, frequent walks, and prioritization of goals.
The second diagnosis of anxiety needs to be addressed as well. Anxiety reduces the stock of emotional energy and interferes with daily life. McGrandles and Duffy (2012) recommend applying one or several of the following interventions: psychological treatment, pharmacological, and self-help. For example, relaxation training can reduce anxiety as relaxation in the body and the mind cannot be combined with alarm. If a person learns to relax during stressful situations, he or she can significantly reduce the frequency and intensity of anxiety.
The third problem is a risk for allergy response that is based on the experience of the son. Estes (2013) considers that a multifaceted treatment program should be used. Currently, exposure control and elimination of household allergens in the immediate environment of patients are treated as the first stage of treatment and prevention of these diseases. The daily airing of apartments, frequent laundry washing, removing carpets from the house, as well as lower humidity levels, are necessary. In case the complete removal of the potential allergen is impossible, it is essential to consider changing wall coverings. Thus, patients with sensitization to household allergens require constant and careful monitoring of allergen exposure.
References
Blair, S. L. (2012). Economic stress and the family. Bingley, UK: Emerald.
Clark, C. S., & Pelicci, G. (2011). An integral nursing education: A stress management and life balance course. International Journal for Human Caring, 15(1), 13-22.
Estes, M. E. (2013). Allergic rhinitis, environmental triggers and treatment modalities. Nursing for Women’s Health, 17(6), 525-531.
McGrandles, A., & Duffy, T. (2012). Assessment and treatment of patients with anxiety. Nursing Standard, 26(35), 48-56.