Family Health Assessment

For this health assessment assignment the system theory was used on a family member from the African American decent as a way of assessing the family as a whole and not an individual. The “Systems theory explains patterns of living among the individuals who make up family systems”( Edelman, 2010, p. 173). The family member was interviewed and open ended family questions that focused on the eleven functional health patterns were asked. The eleven functional health patterns are values, health perception, nutrition, sleep/rest, elimination, activity/exercise, cognitive/perception, self perception, role relationship, sexuality and coping. By asking questions about these eleven health patterns the interviewer …show more content…

He does not wish she was still alive because he knows she was in a lot of pain the last few months of her life and would not want her to continue to experience that pain. He stated that he knew she was in a better place now. Two nursing diagnosis that were identified about this family are grieving related to loss of family member and imbalanced nutrition: more than body requirements related to excessive intake in relation to metabolic need. Interventions that are helpful with this family include learning to grieve about a recent death and share memories of their lost one and providing the family with bereavement community resources. A helpful intervention for this family regarding unhealthy eating habits included recommending the family members to keep a food daily journal, this would allow the family to reexamine their eating habits and make the necessary changes for the following day. Another intervention would include helping the family members determine their body mass index, understanding what the appropriate weight to height ratio is and how their current eating habits are causing their body harm, might encourage the family to make positive lifestyle changes. Community resource that would be recommend for this family are bereavement counseling and weight reduction programs. Evercare Hospice offers bereavement counseling for thirteen months following a love ones passing, this would be helpful while a family member is processing through the