Introduction
Family Nursing Plan of Care
Introduction :
Community nurses hold a unique position in the healthcare delivery
system in that they remain in prolonged and closest relationship and
proximity with the ailing patient while in the hospital setting or while
a patient with long-term health problem is being cared for at home in
the community setting . In the recent time explorations of different ways
of delivering better and more effective health care , nursing practice
has seen drastic changes in the attitude toward the patients . Nursing no
longer is mere task orientation it is beginning to comprehend the
holistic existence of an individual with a life beyond the experiences
of illness . The patients as members of the family and the family of the
patients have special needs , since both are altered irrevocably as a
result of the prolonged illnesses in the family setting . Family refers
to the ancestors , to parents and siblings , to other living relatives , to
spouses and children , and to relationships and identity . The nurses who
work in the community setting would need to recognize these factors , and
they would certainly regard the family as partners in care delivery . Due
to focus on the patient , it is most often forgotten that the family
nurses often provide support to and encourage involvement of the other
members of the family in to ensure continuity of care for the
original client . Factually , thus the family of the client is no longer
considered as clients , rather regarded as potential resources of
community care . The nurses are increasingly being taught and trained on
the trend of involving the families in care delivery , and conceptual
frameworks are created to facilitate better understanding of family
functioning . As a future community care nurse , this author is presenting
a case of family care to demonstrate her understanding of the science of
family assessment and implementation of family care within the framework
to be able to see how her learning and training has been able to meet
the challenges of providing increasingly cost effective , research-based ,
quality healthcare moving out of the institutions in an environment
where family and nurse work more closely together .
Nursing Assessment : The nursing assessment is a science that builds on
Orem 's metaparadigm concept . This considers a person as an individual
with both physical and emotional requirements for development of self
and maintenance of well being . Elaborating this further , the nurse in
this environment would play a pivotal role to modify the surroundings of
the patient and improve it further so that the patient is able to
implement self care . Thus , the patient 's illness is no longer an organic
dysfunction , is rather an effective care would mean restoration of the
patient 's structural and functional soundness with respect to the
wholeness of the individual . Nursing has the responsibility to assess
the self-care deficits , actual or potential , and the nurses would be
specially trained to help a person or his family to deal with such
deficits .