Republic of the Philippines

Tarlac State University

COLLEGE OF SCIENCE
Lucinda Campus, Tarlac City

ASSIGNMENT IN COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSING

MARIA ANGELA B. DANCEL

OCTOBER 2019
 FAMILY NURSING PROCESS

A. Family Health Assessment

This is a nursing tool with three aims:
o To assess family health needs in partnership with the family;
o To enable the family to identify the services they need; and
o To gain information for assessing need at a community level.
The family health assessment covers physical, social, emotional and environmental health and is
completed by the family members themselves. The outcomes of the assessment are discussed by the family
and the nurse, and actions are agreed jointly.
A family health assessment made in partnership with a nurse can be empowering for a family. It can give
them the means by which to demand or refuse services. Families have the right to make choices and this
should influence local service provision. The information that families provide about their community at
micro level is of good quality and can build into an overall picture of the community if a sufficient number
of assessments are completed.
Profile information
1. Characteristics of the population 4. Current nursing work
Geography 5. Local people’s views of their health needs and health services
Numbers 6. Local and national priorities
Age distribution
Gender distribution
Ethnicity and religion
Population trends
Language and literacy
2. Health status of the population
Measures of health
3. Local factors affecting health (positive and negative)
Work and employment Destabilizing factors
Resources, formal and informal Poverty and incomes
Environment Social cohesion

1. Tools for Assessment

Appendix 4: Example of a family health assessment tool developed by health visitors in Rotherham
Priority Health Trust, United Kingdom
“A PICTURE OF HEALTH FOR YOUR FAMILY”
This will helps us to work together to build up a picture of your family’s health. It will help your family
to recognize what being healthy means to you and to plan, with your public health nurse, ways of
improving your health.
1. PHYSICAL HEALTH
Think about each member of your family.
Write their names on the scale to show how healthy they are.
HEALTHY TO UNHEALTHY
Do you or does any member of your family suffer from any illness or disability?
YES/NO
If yes, what?
2. SOCIAL HEALTH
Many things can affect your family’s health.
*Do you have any worries with the following that you would like to share?
Housing Exercise and leisure
Finance Food
Work, or lack of it Smoking
Relationships Alcohol
Women’s health Drugs
Men’s health
*Support
Who helps and supports your family?
What do you do to relax as a family?
Do you feel you have time to relax and enjoy yourselves?
3. EMOTIONAL HEALTH
Ask each member of your family: HOW DO YOU FEEL?
And write their name on the scale
What things are affecting the way your family feels at the moment?
Family Where you live
Friend’s Social life
Work/unemployment School
Money Health
Anything else?
4. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
Where you live can have an important effect on your family’s health.
Do you have any concerns with the following? If yes, please tick the box.
Your home
Your neighbours
Crime
Traffic
Pollution (e.g. air, noise, smells)
What are the facilities like in your neighbourhood, e.g. parks, shops, transport, groups, education,
meeting places?
How easy is it to get to and use the health services in your neighbourhood, e.g. clinics, GPs, chemists?
How to use the family health assessment tool
1. Explain to the family what it is for
2. Allow them time to look at it
3. Let people decide for themselves who their immediate family is. It may be an individual or a large
extended family, or non-related persons. It can be more than one household
4. Try to start without any preconceptions, even if you know the family well
5. Listen and talk to the family about any issues that arise
6. Don’t worry of there are no health needs at this time or if there is nothing for you to do. This is surely
a good sign.

FAMILY COPPING INDEX

• tool used to assess the coping ability of the family for certain health situation with its purpose of
providing a basis for estimating the nursing needs of a particular family
Coping
- defined as dealing with problems associated with care with reasonable success
Coping deficit
- when the family is unable to cope with one and other aspect of health care
To Cope
- ability or capacity to deal with health situation; the control with the health competence of the
family
General Considerations:
 It is the coping capacity and not the underlying problem that is being rated.
• Example: A person with serious cardiac condition.
 It is the family and not the individual that is being rated. In rating, it is your own professional
judgment that will be needed to make a decision.
Nine Areas of Family Nursing Family Coping Index:
1) Physical Competence
• -Concerned with ability to move about, to get out of bed, to take care of daily grooming,
walking, The causes of dependence may vary and may be due to:
 actual physical incapacity
 the inability of “know-how” to unwillingness; or
  fear of doing the necessary tasks
• Family failing entirely to provide required personal care to one or more of its members.
• Examples:
 Arthritic patient unable to get out of bed alone, no one available to help
 patient “cannot” give his hypodermic medication because of fear
• Family providing partially for needs of its members, or providing care for some members but not
for others.
• Examples
 mother may be doing well with own and husband’s care but failing to give daily care
efficiently to a newborn baby
 daughter may be giving excellent physical care to aged mother but at cost of neglecting
children somewhat, or with poor mechanics that place undue strain upon her.
2) Therapeutic Competence
- includes all of the procedures or treatments prescribed for the care of illness, such as giving
medications, using appliances (including crutches), dressings, exercises and relaxation, special
diets,
3) Knowledge of Health Condition
- concerned with the particular health condition that is the occasion for care
4) Application of Principle of General Hygiene
concerned with family action in relation to maintaining family nutrition, securing adequate rest
and relaxation for family members, carrying out accepted preventive measures such as
• Immunizations
• medical appraisal
• safe homemaking habits in relation to storing and preparing foods
5) Health Attitudes
- concerned with the way the family feels about health care in general, including preventive
service, care of illness and public health measures.
6) Emotional Competence
This category has to go with the maturity and integrity with which the members of the family are
to meet the usual stresses and problems of life, and to plan for happy and fruitful living.
• The degree to which individuals accept the necessary disciplines imposed by one’s family and
culture
• The development and maintenance of individual responsibility and decision
• Willingness to meet responsibility and decision
• Willingness to meet reasonable obligations, to accept adversity with fortitude, to consider the
needs of others as well as one’s own
7) Family Living
This category is concerned largely with the interpersonal or group aspects of family life
 • How well the members of the family get along with one another
• The ways in which they make decisions affecting the family as a whole
• The degree to which they support one another and do the things as a family
• The degree of respect and affection they show for one another
• The ways in which they manage the family budget • the kind of discipline that prevails
8) Physical Environment
This topic is concerned with the home, the community and the work environment as it affects
family health.
• The condition of the house such as the
• presence of accident hazards, screening, plumbing system, facilities for cooking and privacy
• level of community (deteriorated neighborhood, presence of social hazards such as rats),
transportation, condition of schools, and availability.
9) Use of Community Facilities
This category has to do with the degree of the family use and awareness of the available
community facilities for health education and welfare.