Family Health Assessment

Family Health Assessment

Introduction

Health assessment programs are designed to formulate the means of assessing the indicators which pertains to the patient's satisfaction with their current health condition and their perception regarding a quality life (Kaakinen, et al., 2010). Having knowledge about these aspects provide the health care providers an opportunity to communicate better with their patients and educate them about appropriate strategies which help them in achieving their individual health goals. This is why family health assessment is an important aspect which helps in identifying the health problems being faced by a family, while it also highlights the strengths, so that appropriate actions can be taken to maintain the well being of the entire family (Edlin & Golanty, 2009). It is used as of the most imperative tool in designing a health plan for the entire family. This research paper will focus on completing a family assessment, for this purpose numerous open minded family focused question for each of the eleven functional health patterns of Gordon have been developed.

Discussion

The assessment tool used, Gordon's eleven functional health patterns, provides a systematic measure of collecting data from a family and assists the nurses into developing an adequate diagnosis so that suitable interventions can be suggested (Gordon, 2010). The assessment of the family's health began with the analysis of the values and health perception of the functional health pattern suggested by Gordon. The selected family had been married for twenty three years and has two kids. The age of the father is 52 years old, while the mother is 45 years old. Among the children, they have a boy and a girl. The boy is 22 years old, while the sister is 16.

Values and Health Perception

Based on the health perception, the family shared that they strongly condemn both drinking and smoking, properly maintain a eating schedule of three meals a day and ensure that both of their children, as well as the parents are properly immunized. Though they do not exercise on a continuous basis, but occasionally indulge into such activities and highly rank them.

Questions

Does anyone in your family make use of drugs, alcohol or cigarettes?

How often do you perform self exams?

Nutrition

The family mentioned that all of them have normal diets and usually have three meals a day with one of these meals being taken around evening time. As both the children go to school, it is difficult for them to have all the meals together, thus they make sure that at least one of the meals is taken together. The family believes in taking a diet which is balanced, such that it is full of minerals and various forms of vitamins which are important in living a healthy lifestyle. In order to ensure this, they cook their own meals at least twice a week. The parents are specifically concerned about the intake of calories that their family consumes, and that is why they give special consideration to choosing healthy and nutritious ...