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Family Health

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Submitted By ScoobyDoo2
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Family Health and Nursing Practice
University of Phoenix
NUR 542: Dynamics of Family Systems
May 25, 2010

Traditional hospital based nursing care is most often care provided to individual patients. Individual patients, however, are members of a family. Family nursing practice has evolved over the past 20 years as a way to approach and work with families. Effective nursing care ensures that the entire family’s situation, not only the illness of the loved one, is considered (Maijala & Astedt-Kurki, 2009). A goal for family nursing practice in the hospital setting will be to focus on three areas simultaneously; care of the ill patient, the interpersonal aspects of the family and the family as a whole (Eggenberger & Nelms, 2007). This paper will discuss the importance of the family as a system to promote health, define family in a hospital based setting, and identify the family nursing theory applicable to care for the hospitalized patient and family.
The Family System and Promotion of Health for its Members
The importance of family in the health of our society is directly related to our smallest community of society-the family. “Family transmits society’s demands and values and furthers its preservation” (Burchard, 2005). Family has a goal of meeting the needs of its members and is the main source of information, learning behaviors, thoughts and feelings. Healthy growth and development has been viewed as the most vital role of the family, providing crucial development of an individual’s identity and self-esteem (Friedman, Bowden, & Jones, 2003). The family’s culture, value and belief system affect the individual family member and influence health behaviors. Individuals need the ability to choose important factors in health behavior, factors deemed most important to them within their family unit (Mathews, Secrest, & Muirhead, 2008). Family

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