Family Health Assessment
Michelle Lowery
Grand Canyon University: Family Centered Health Promotion
May 24, 2015

Family Health Assessment
Functional health patterns help organize basic family assessment information (Edelman, Kudzma & Mandel, 2014). In this assessment there are eleven categories that allows the medical professional ability to provide a uniform and organized approach to review the health and human functions of individual patients and families. When a medical provider can interview the family as a whole it is easier to determine functional and dysfunctional patterns of each family member and the family. I began my interview by asking several open ended questions from the eleven functional patterns. This essay will describe the health patterns of the Smith family. In this paper I will discuss the health patterns of this family and my nursing diagnoses that are related to this family. The Smith family consists of Mr. Smith age 33, Mrs. Smith age 32, Mrs. Smith son Andrew age 13 and Mr. & Mrs. Smith’s son Ryan age 3. Mr. Smith is an Engineer at Domtar Paper Company and has worked there for 15 years. He attended a local community college and received a degree in Industrial Maintenance. Mrs. Smith is the office manager for the Specialty Clinic at Scotland Health Care System. She also received her degree from the local community college in Health Management. This is Mrs. Smith’s second marriage. Her first marriage was to her high school sweetheart. During this marriage she had Andrew. The marriage soon ended in divorce due to the realization that her husband was homosexual. A few years later she meet and married Mr. Smith. Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been married now for 6 years. They have a nice home outside the city limits. Functional Health Pattern is a system used by nurses to help develop an extensive nursing assessment of patients and families. Family is described as a set of interacting individuals related by blood, marriage, cohabitation or adoption (Edelman, Kudzma & Mandle, 2014). For my assessment I was able to interview Mrs. Smith. I began with the Health Perception-Health Management Pattern of this family. In general, Mrs. Smith felt the overall health status of the family was good. Currently neither parent nor any of the children have any known medical issues. Neither of the parents drink, use any tobacco products or illegal drugs. Mrs. Smith has her annual checkup with her primary physician and her gynecologist. However, Mr. Smith has a physical every two years with his job. Both kids are up to date with their immunizations. Next I reviewed their Nutritional-Metabolic Pattern. The typical daily intake is mostly take out for this busy working class family. They stop for a fast breakfast on the way to work, daycare and school. Once home Mrs. Smith normally prepares a meal for the family. This family of four lives in a small country home that consists of two bedrooms and one bath. For their elimination pattern Mrs. Smith denies any real problems. She describes their urinary elimination, “Good because they live on forty acres and the boys can go outdoors if needed.” Ryan the youngest and recently potty trained seemed to be the only one in the family with bowel movement issues Mrs. Smith. She also stated “He didn’t like to stinky in the potty now he is officially a big boy and is using it like a champ.” Activity-Exercise Pattern is minimal for the family. Occasionally Mrs. Smith will walk about two miles while Andrew rides his bike and Ryan rides his battery powered tractor. Mrs. Smith states her husband complains he walks enough at work usually all over the plant, therefore he doesn’t participate with them in exercise. The Family generally gets adequate amount of night’s rest. The kids typically go to bed around 10pm and Mrs. Smith shortly after. Mr. Smith works swing shifts from day to night. Therefore, his sleep pattern varies, however, he is able to function and feels well rested most of the time. Mr. Smith has some sensory deficits due to his job. He has been in the industrial workforce for over 15 years and does have some hearing loss. Mrs. Smith and Andrew are near sighted in one eye and far sighted in the other and both did have strabismus “cross eyes”. They had surgery to correct the strabismus and now wear glasses or contacts. The family in general seems to be well educated, except for the teenage son Andrew. “He is a typical teenage boy no book or common sense,” and doesn’t seem to care about anything,” Mrs. Smith stated. Majority of the time Mrs. Smith’s self-perception is that she feels good about herself. “There are certain times a month I have bad days,” per Mrs. Smith. Her teenage son Andrew is very withdrawn and a loner. Mrs. Smith has a lot of concerns about him because of the issues with his father being homosexual and having to visits that environment routinely. Mrs. Smith’s family consisted of a mother and father and two sisters. Mrs. Smith’s father is diagnosed with unknown mental issues and has had prior electric shock therapy. Also one of her sisters, was a registered nurse that is now a drug addict. Ryan the three year old has his toddler bed in mom and dad’s room, “which causes a lot of issues because he normally is in the bed with us.” This issue makes it hard for the young couple to have adult alone time. For coping and stress tolerance Mrs. Smith states “I cope a whole lot better than my family.” Mrs. Smith relieves stress by confiding and talking with one of her co-workers. The major stressors is “having the baby in the bed or bedroom at all times.” Her husband doesn’t see the importance of renovating the home to establish Ryan his own bedroom. The Smith family doesn’t attend church on a routine basis. However, Mrs. Smith does read the Bible and pray. In stressful situations Mrs. Smith will rely on her co-worker for spiritual and Christian advice. Mrs. Smith does have a lot of guilt about not having the kids in church especially with Andrew withdrawn the way he is. Families are made of different people working together to function as a whole unit in difficult situations. This family is typical of blended families in America today. By using Gordon’s eleven Functional Health Pattern Assessment Questions I was able to assess the family as a unit and develop proper nursing diagnoses for the family. I developed a diagnoses for the parents because they seemed to have problems with the Sexuality-Reproductive Pattern. A diagnoses for them would be” Risk for Ineffective Sexuality Pattern.” The teenage son seemed to soon develop issues if he doesn’t start opening up and talking with people. A Wellness Diagnoses “Risk for disturbed thought processes,” would fit the teenage son.

References
Edelman, C., Kudzma, E., & Mandle, C. (2014). Health Promotion Throughout the Life Span, 8th Edition. [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from http://pageburstls.elsevier.com/books/978-0-323-09141- 1/id/B9780323091411000073_p0290