nursing 464 concepts of family nursing theory

Concepts of Family Nursing Theory

2007

Nurses hold a unique position among health care professionals in terms of prolonged proximity to patients during a stay in hospital or while a person with a long-term health problem is being cared for at home . In contemporary context it is necessary to address the needs of the families whose lives may be irrevocably changed by the illness of one member . As Friedman (1992 :29 ) put it : The psychosocial strains on a family with a member suffering a chronic or life-threatening condition can rival the

physical strains on the patient ' However , it is not only in relation to chronic illness and disability that families may stand in need of help . The family developmental life cycle involves natural transitions which may create considerable stress . One example might be a woman trying to deal with an adolescent son who is engaging in risk-taking with drugs and alcohol , to protect her younger son from his brother 's influence , to persuade her busy husband to give more attention to his family while providing some support for her mother who is caring for an increasingly frail husband . There is potential for conflict in all of these relationships as family members attempt to balance their own needs with those of other members of the family , and of the family as a unit . Such family tensions are likely to influence the health and well-being of each family member , and their ability to deal with unanticipated events such as accidents or unemployment . Wherever families are struggling to maintain or restore equilibrium , to find ways of coping effectively with crisis or with long-term stress , nurses may find themselves in a supportive role

Frude (1990 ) identifies that in the literature on families some authors focus upon individuals and regard other members as being the social context of the person . Other authors look at the family unit as a whole with individual members as parts of the whole . This distinction is pertinent to discussions on family nursing . Currently nurses and their colleagues see it as both legitimate and important to take into account the family context of their patients or clients . Much more discussion and collaboration takes place with relatives than in the past . Nurses in some specialties , for instance community nursing , pediatrics or psychiatric nursing , might argue that because of the nature of their work they have always been concerned with the family of the particular client or patient

From the contemporary perspective , it is useful to be aware of how family composition is changing in to have a mind to the wider context of society as a whole . It is possible to be under the impression that the family today is in terminal decline if all that one reads in the popular press is to be believed . A closer look behind the headlines reveals that what is understood to be under threat is the traditional two biological parent household with dependent children , the nuclear family . It is increasingly apparent that a growing...