Family health promotion GCU

Topic 2 DQ 2

The health of a family has a definite effect on individual members of that family. Because Members of a family may share same genes, habits, lifestyles, environment, it is important for individual members and healthcare professionals (nurses/doctors) to learn and assess the health history of family members. As a member knowing about the health of your family gives you important clues related to your risk for a disease and how you can try to prevent them where possible. For example, some diseases like cancers, diabetes, asthma run in a family. Knowing about this can assist family members reduce the risk by adapting to healthy lifestyles such as eating healthy, exercising, avoid smoking and the like. For diseases like breast/colorectal cancers, there are screening tests like mammograms and colorectal screening that can be used to detect them at early stage where they are treatable and help to detect risk factors like high cholesterol and blood pressure, which can be treated to reduce the chances of getting a disease. One of the important data collected during the assessment process of a patient by a nurse or doctor is a patient’s family history. This information is used to provide a greater picture of a patient’s condition and help the doctor to make a definite diagnosis that is not based on the symptoms alone but also on the family’s history. Information obtained on a family’s heath can be used to formulate a treatment plan to promote the health of a patient and that of the family. Family health promotion GCU

Human behavior plays a central role in health promotion and disease prevention. Health care professionals have turned to models of behavior change to guide the development of strategies that foster self-protective action, reduce behaviors that increase health risk, and facilitate effective adaptation to and coping with illness. One of the strategies is to incorporate shared decision-making and participation in patient/family care. This strategy is incorporated in the Family-Centered Care (FCC) model (Green, 2018) and the Participatory Health model-PHM (Whitney, 2018). According to the FCC model, understanding decision making can be key to motivating behavior changes and support aspects. The PHM also incorporate the aspect of respect and open communication where health care workers and individual family members can work together as a team. Another strategy is to the structural, developmental, and functional dynamics of a family and applying a focused intervention. The nurse can apply the Calgary family intervention model (CFIM) to create a change and improve family functioning. This model focuses on the fact that a change in one of the domains (cognitive, affective, or behavioral domain) creates a change in another. (Green, 2018). The health belief model can be used to predict health behavior and readiness for change. The nurses use this model to assess the moral/cultural competency of a family. Understanding why what they do or eat a particular food is an important information for health promotion (Whitney, 2018). The last but not the least strategy is to provide the family with the education and resources that they need. For example, upon discharge, a nurse would provide the patient with discharge information on any new medications, a information on available resources in the community.

An effective strategy to change individual health behavior require a multifaceted approach that will help family adopt, change, and maintain behavior. The nurse would assess the patient’s or family motivation or willingness to adapt to change, collaborate with the individual family and other healthcare professionals to implement patient’s own goals, and monitor for feedbacks. Family health promotion GCU

References

Green, S. Z. (2018). Understanding Families and Health Promotion. Retrieved October 15, 2021, from

https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs429nv/health-promotion-health-and-wellness-across-the-continuum/v1.1/#/chapter/4.

Whitney, S. (2018). Teaching and Learning Styles. Retrieved October 15, 2021, from

https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs429nv/health-promotion-health-and-wellness-across-the-continuum/v1.1/#/chapter/1.

Why is the concept of family health important? Consider the various strategies for health promotion. How does a nurse determine which strategy would best enable the targeted individuals to gain more control over, and improve, their health?

Topic 2 DQ 2

The Importance of Family Health and Strategies for Health Promotion

Family health is important because the individual is connected to each member of his family. Some barriers that may affect the selection of a health promotion model are the family’s availability to resources, willingness to learn, motivation, culture, learning styles, previous life experiences, and ability to apply behavioral changes. Nurses must be aware that many variables may be present that affect the patients’ ability to learn (Whitney, 2018). The Social-Ecological Model incorporates the community into the family equation. Individual factors, environmental factors, and the community are all factors that affect the overall health of the individual (Falkner,2018). The use of the nursing process should be followed to develop the best plan of care for the patient. Evidence-based practice and using resources and tools available to the nurse are strategies that will enable the nurse to help the patient gain some control and improve their health. Family health promotion GCU

References

Grand Canyon University (Ed). (2018). Health promotion: Health & wellness across the continuum. Retrieved from https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs429vn/health-promotion-health-and-wellness-across-the-continuum/v1.1/ Family health promotion GCU