Family nursing and family nursing theory

Question 0

Define family as a client, context, system and component of society

Answer 0

Client

• The family unit is the focus
• Concern of all members
• Focus on the health of all members

Context

• Primary focus on the health of the individual family member
• The nurse assesses the family to assess any impact that the family has on the individuals health/illness and interventions

System
-Focus is on the relationships between family members
-Nursing interventions are based on these relationships
Ex. Counseling

Society
-Focus is on the relationship between the family and other institutions

Question 1

Discuss the development of family nursing

Answer 1

Women have traditionally taken care of family members

Roots in
Maternal-child nursing
Community, home care
Psychiatric or mental health nursing

Question 2

Family System Theories

Answer 2

Family System Theory

• Most influential theory of all family social science frameworks
• Used to help gain an understanding and to assess families as an organized whole and/or as individuals within family units
• Helps nurses to see individual clients as part of a larger family system

CONCEPTS
All parts of the system are interconnected
The whole is more than the sum of its parts
All systems have some form of boundaries or borders between the system and its environment
Systems can be further subdivided into subsystems

Strengths:

• Data-gathering method and assessment
• Views the family and its subsystems within the contexts of its suprasystems
• Views the family as a whole

Weakness
-because this theoretical orientation is so global and abstract, may not be specific enough for beginners to define family nursing intervention

Assumptions
Family systems features are designed to maintain stability
features can be adaptive or maladaptive.
Families change constantly in response to stresses and strains from both the internal and external environments.
Increase in complexity over time
Families increase their ability to adapt and change

Question 3

Developmental Theory

Answer 3

Focuses on the life cycle of families and represents normative stages of family development
Can help the nurse understand “normal” family changes

Concepts

• Families develop and change over time
• Families experience transitions from one stage to another (stressed, need for intervention)

Developmental Theory Stages:
Married couple
Childbearing families with infants
Families with preschool children
Families with school-age children
Families with adolescents
Families with young adults:  launching
Middle-aged parents
Aging families

Strengths
-Provides an understanding of what a family MAY be experiencing during the family life cycle
Weaknesses
-Model was developed when the traditional nuclear family was emphasized

Question 4

Describe the origins and evolutions of theories used to support family nursing practice

Answer 4

Family Social Science Theories

• best and developed and informative
• includes family function, environment-family interchange, interactions and dynamics within the family, changes in family over time and family’s reaction to health and illness

Family Therapy Theories
-developed to work with troubled families, focuses on family pathology

Nursing Conceptual Framework

• descriptive and prescriptive; to guide nursing assessment and intervention efforts
• nursing focus
• primarily families with health and illness problem