Family as Context
A clinical situation occurred where minors below the teenage required healthcare services (Flores et al., 2020). The child was diagnosed with chronic illness, and, as a result, regular medical monitoring and chemical therapy were needed. There were talks about the patient, and it was during case conferences that the attending physicians specialized in the condition were called. Family members or guardians were also included in these discussions. To a great extent, the parents took full charge of their little one’s health establishment. They did it through giving the child medications, scheduling appointments, and actually being emotional supporters.
Family as Client
There was an instance that occurred when the ill matriarch of a household was diagnosed with a grave illness (Henriquez et al., 2019). A nurse was reporting caretaking the matriarch and was also looking into the family members’ reactions to the sad news. It was apparent the diagnosis brought not only health implications to the matriarch but also emotional issues for her family members as well as greater healthcare gaps which are likely to arise. The nurse managed the situation by guiding and showing the family how they could live in their environment while going through the hard times.
Family as a System
Another possible case that caused a family dynamics shift was when a child’s diagnosis of cancer seemed to be near-fatal (Warner et al., 2021). The nurse acknowledged family interrelations. She explored the relationships that each family member had and tried to understand the duties and functions that everyone performed. One of the members of a family suffers denial while another quite obviously feels heightened anxiety and panic. At the same time, a family member assumes the position of the primary carer; this person is responsible for organizing medical appointments, fulfilling household chores and giving emotional support to the sick child. The nurse stepped in by helping the family develop communication channels, providing coping plans for them and connecting the family with supplementary support systems
Family as a Component of Society
In the context of having a close family being involved in caring for a member who has an illness, the community resources acted somewhat like a lifeline (Hamari et al., 2022). The family took advantage of any support groups they could find, including those targeting the problems that they were facing. This gave them a way to connect with others who were in the same situation that they were facing. Furthermore, the family used to collaborate with the care experts and community organizations so that it could benefit from academic resources and services which were specifically developed to handle their cases. Although they faced some difficulties grappling with red tape issues and grappling with long waiting for specialized services to be provided, the helpful community resources strengthened the family’s social support and well-being, also improving the level of care of the sick family member.
Objective
Overtime, I am fully aware that the role of the family nurse practitioner is to help families recognize and understand the different tasks that each member is supposed to do, roles that make up the unique interdependence of family relationships and responsibilities. When family members are on the path of solving healthcare problems together, they take on different and complementary roles, bringing in all the attributes required to see their loved ones healthy. Such roles are mostly of caregivers, emotional support providers, promoters, and decision-makers. Knowing the part each family member has and the goals of holistic care, nurses can then gear the interventions to conform to the needs of each of the family members and facilitate communication, collaboration and mutual support.
Additionally, the family nurse is established as a key person who helps families in this endeavour. The family nurse works at the centre of the processes and helps families to understand the system and its processes. However, the support of nurses goes beyond simple healthcare provision. They try to develop families’ resources, motivation, and self-reliance, which can help them overcome problems and learn how to cope with them properly. Nurses’ care models strive for more than just physical health. They advocate for the emotional, social, and spiritual well-being of the deceased’s family members as well. Nurses are able to provide education, counselling and advocacy to empower everyone in a family, as well as guide them to access the healthcare resources available in the community. To sum up, the goal of the family nursing intervention is to build and strengthen family ties, develop coping tools and enhance the whole family’s wellness.
References
Flores, D. D., Rosario, A. A., Bond, K. T., Villarruel, A. M., & Bauermeister, J. A. (2020). Parents ASSIST (Advancing Supportive and Sexuality-Inclusive Sex Talks): Iterative development of a sex communication video series for parents of gay, bisexual, and queer male adolescents. Journal of Family Nursing, 26(2), 90-101.https://doi.org/10.1177/107484071989790
Hamari, L., Konttila, J., Merikukka, M., Tuomikoski, A. M., Kouvonen, P., & Kurki, M. (2022). Parent support programmes for families who are immigrants: A scoping review. Journal of immigrant and minority health, 24(2), 506-525. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-021-01181-z
Henriquez, N., Hyndman, K., & Chachula, K. (2019). It’s complicated: Improving undergraduate nursing students’ understanding family and care of LGBTQ older adults. Journal of Family Nursing, 25(4), 506-532. https://doi.org/10.1177/1074840719864099
Wagner, L. D., & Armstrong, E. (2020). Families in transition: The lived experience of parenting a transgender child. Journal of Family Nursing, 26(4), 337–345. https://doi.org/10.1177/1074840720945340
Warner, A., Dorsen, C., Navarra, A. M. D., & Cohen, S. (2021). An integrative review of experiences parenting transgender and gender diverse children. Journal of Family Nursing, 27(4), 304-326. https://doi.org/10.1177/10748407211001559
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