Family & Societal Nursing

Weekly Discussion Post Example: Delaine Frasier

Posted May 14, 2022 12:01 AM

Students-

Delaine has given permission to share the Week 1 Discussion post with the class.  Please notice how she incorporated the professional literature (not just the textbooks)  into the post.  She also uploaded the articles referenced into the initial postas well.  In addition to providing evidence for the inital post, Delaine also  Did something with the content  . . . review the table for Question 4.  This answer not only shows the content of the question, but that Delaine was able to properly apply the content!  This is the level of  Thinking Family   that I am looking for and preparing you for graduate school. 

Respectfully,

Norma

1. Hello! My name is Delaine Frasier. I have some experience in adult home care as a CNA but all of my RN working experience is in pediatrics. I worked for one year at a pediatric hospital in Las Vegas before moving to Minnesota and have worked at the same hospital in the Twin Cities for 15 years. Currently I work on an observation/ short stay unit but have many years of experience in pediatric hematology/oncology, neurosurgery, epilepsy, behavioral health, and general med/surg. I am a wife and working mother to three young children. My children and husband are the things that matter most to me in this world. My goals are keeping them all happy and healthy. I am the youngest of three children. My brother and sister are much older than I am and were out of the house before I started elementary school. My parents, siblings and their families all live in Nevada, so it is difficult to see them often. I am looking forward to gaining more knowledge in family focused nursing care to be able to enhance my practice in pediatric nursing.

 2. Reflect on an illness experience in your own family or a family you know. Describe the struggles the family experienced with the illness. Consider the biological, social, psychological, or spiritual factors that influenced the management and coping of the family. Based on your experience pose a nursing approach that may have been helpful to the family. Use your readings to support your analysis and response.

When my daughter was about 18 months old she had to go to the emergency room for croup. It was scary for me even though I was a nurse. It was hard to keep her calm so that her stridor didn’t worsen. Luckily, I was able to leave my older child and my baby at home with my husband, however they were both sick too. It was a difficult and scary time even after the emergency room visit because her illness didn’t end there. My husband and I both had to take time off work to be home with our sick children. We share parenting and household responsibilities, and we were able to take turns tending to the kids and taking care of household chores, but it was difficult. Should a family nurse have assisted us during this time, they may have offered support to conduct our normal routines in order to help us feel a sense of normalcy during a stressful illness. According to Denham (2016) as cited by Kaakinen et al. (2018) nurses can help families experiencing an illness by assisting in establishing new routines in order to provide structure while still meeting the needs of the family.

 

3. What is your definition of family and family health?

My personal definition of family is our nuclear family. As I am reading and learning I believe I subscribe to the definition adopted by our textbook which defines family as a “dynamic, changing state of well-being, which includes biological, psychological, spiritual, sociological, and cultural factors of individual members and the whole family system” (Kaakinen et al., 2018, p. 5). This definition combines all aspects of life for individual members as well as for the whole family.

 

4. Describe your family health experience utilizing the 3 family health domains.

Table 1 describes my personal family’s health experience using definitions and examples from the text (Kaakinen et al., 2018).

 

Table 1

Delaine’s Family

Contextual Aspects	Functional Aspects	Structural Aspects
· Three children,  husband · Educated adults, husband has law degree, self-employed, husband works from home · No supporting family close-by but close friendship networks · No chronic illnesses in immediate family. Extended family with some chronic conditions. · Family values are be kind to each other, encourage independence in tasks. ·  All family has been home together quite a bit due to Covid-19 · Live in small community in metro area where schools are located within .5 miles from home, shop and have friends within the community. · Have health insurance, use health insurance mostly for well-checks.	· Husband and I communicate openly with one another · Easy going people · Positive outlook · Incredibly cohesive with one another · Have had to set boundaries with extended family · Family is main priority over work, social life and school · Children are close in age but we encourage them to take part in their own activities, makes their own friends	· Parents act as equal partners. · One parent takes lead on task at hand and communication is open about what needs to be done. ·  Individual health prioritized with mental health breaks and regular exercise · Individual growth of social wellness prioritized for children by placing in preschool for social/emotional wellness · Safety prioritized in home. Examples: regular checking of car seat, always using car seat correctly, always wear helmets with biking/scooters for all family members. Child proofed home for young children. Caution always taken for choking hazards. · Protective of who we leave our children with. · Sleep and bedtime routines are a huge part of family routine · Physical therapy for oldest child for ankle pain · Camps and other activities to develop social skills and physical health · Make much of our own food, read labels, very low sugar/card intake for entire family

 

 

5. Describe your family’s health routines. Identify some barriers or challenges for families not developing or maintaining health routines.

Our family practices health routines that can be captured in the six categories of family health routines as identified by Denham (2003) and cited by Kaakinen et al. (2018). These six categories are defined as self-care routines, safety and prevention, mental health behaviors, family care, illness care and member caregiving. Health behaviors, values and patterns are learned within a family which is why health promotion of the whole family unit is important (Kaakinen et al., 2018). Factors that may be barriers to developing or maintaining health routines include demographic characteristics such as socioeconomic status. Adequate income for resources and supplies for leisure activities, exercise equipment and recreation are often beyond the means of low-income families (Kaakinen et al., 2018). Access to healthy food in low-income neighborhoods can also be more difficult (Kaakinen et al., 2018). Environment could be a barrier for low-income families living in urban neighborhoods. Families that do not have access to green space and safe places for children to play are at risk for environmental hazards such as air pollution, lead and pesticide exposure (Kaakinen et al., 2018).

 

6. To introduce family nursing practice and give you a background on how to care for the family unit, please watch video clips of our former nursing students caring for George Maverick in our simulation suite on the Mankato campus. Observe the similarities/differences seen between the individual focus (video 1) vs. family focused care (video 2).

After viewing the videos of former nursing students caring for George Maverick, I noticed some differences and similarities. In both scenarios, the nurses caring for Mr. Maverick had excellent clinical skills and were able to assess, provide needed immediate interventions, notify the charge nurse with concerns, call the provider, and transfer the patient to the intensive care unit in a timely manner. In Simulation without Family Focus, the nurses had an individual focus where they interacted with the patient directly and did not include the patient’s spouse into bedside report, assessments and intervention. Minimal explanations were given to the spouse who was clearly worried about her husband. In Simulation with Family Focus, the nurses provided family focused care and included the spouse in care, explanations and encouraged interaction between the patient and family. The bedside nurses and charge nurse explained what was happening, medications, catheter placement, and reason for transfer to the intensive care unit to both the patient and his spouse. Though the interventions and outcomes of each scenario were the same, the nurses in scenario two came across as more caring and were able to gain the trust of the patient and family by taking time to explain, provide opportunities for questions, and encourage involvement of their extended family.

 

7. Thinking family – Address the health inequities and health disparities: Does the basic premise of family focused nursing care hold true: When the health of one family is improved, the health of society has also been improved.

Health outcomes of families can be challenged by health disparities resulting from structural racism, stigma, socioeconomic status, and restricted access to health care as well as other factors (Kaakinen et al., 2018). According to Denham et al. (2016), risk factors for the 10 leading causes of death are use of tobacco, diet, sedentary lifestyle, and alcohol consumption indicating that disease prevention through lifestyle changes may be the key to improving outcomes.