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AFamily Health Assessment

AFamily Health Assessment

Healthassessment is a significant tool that considers an individual familyas the unit of medical care. An effective assessment is accomplishedby interviewing the family or one of its members. A mother of threekids was interviewed in order to accomplish the purpose of thispaper. The interviewee is 38 years old. She is an immigrant from theMexico and works as an attendant in a local retail shop. This paperwill provide a summary of the interview and two wellness problems.

of the Findings

Valuesor health perceptions

Someof the key values that the value honors include consistency andperseverance. These values help the members of the family to manageproblems that they face on a daily basis. The goal of the family isto ensure that no members contract a preventable disease. Membersmaintain their health by undertaking screening for major diseases(such as cancer) in order to ensure that they are treated in time, incase they occur.

Nutrition

Themother interviewed in this family assessment study believes that herfamily eats healthy foods at times. One of the challenges that thefamily faces when trying to access healthy foods is the high cost ofthe products, such as organic agricultural produce. In addition, allfamily members prefer eating at home to restaurants. However, thehusband of the mother interviewed eats in the restaurant quite oftendue to his tight schedules that deny him the chance to go home.

Sleep/rest

Themother stated that she sleeps for six hours per day, which shebelieves is within the recommended duration for an average adult. Shealso believes that her bed is cozy enough. She goes to bed at nine inthe evening after completing her household chores. She believes thatthis is the right time to go to bed since she can relax aftercompleting all pending tasks.

Elimination

Themother stated that she does not know how many times she urinates perday. She held that she has never bothered to count. She also believesthat the number can vary from one day to another, depending on theamount of liquids that she drinks. In addition, the mother does notcount the number of bowel movements. However, she estimated that thenumber is three on average. The mother stated that she experiencedsome bladder problems when she gave birth to her first born son.During this time, she used to urinate more frequently than usual.However, this she recovered from this problem after the first month.

Activity

Themother and most of the family members do their physical exercise ontrend mills. She does her exercise ones in a day. She does it everymorning before going to work. She desires to join a fitness club, butshe has not managed due to time as well as the financial constraints.

Cognitive

Themother believes that her IQ is average. However, she had limitedinformation about her IQ since she has never taken a test.Additionally, the mother in question has never taken part in anycognitive activity. Although she sounded unconcerned about hercognitive ability, she believes that having the peace of mindmaintains her QI in good condition.

Sensoryperception

Themother stated that all her senses are functioning properly. Shemeasures the functioning of her senses by the effectiveness withwhich she is able to communicate and interact with other people,including the family members and friends. She believes that theprocesses of communication and interaction require a lot of senses.She has never experienced any significant problem with her senses.

Selfperception

Themost significant values to the mother include confidence andtrustworthiness. The two values guide her in managing her own lifeand interactions that she makes with other people. She is alsopessimistic about everything in life. She attributes her pessimism toa perception that problems are opportunities to learn new lessons.She believes that she will have will have managed to balance betweenwork and life in five years time, which will boost her self-esteem.

Rolerelationship

Onaverage, the interviewee spends about two hours with her friends perday. She interacts with her friends in the evening and weekends. Theinterviewee could not remember the total number of friends that shehas. However, she stated that she has about ten close friends. Theseare the friends that she can trust with her personal issues. Thedesire to develop the social part of life is the key thing that hashelped the interviewee to maintain her relationships.

Sexuality

Theinterviewee had three children, including one daughter and two sons.Surprisingly, the interview stated that she engaged in a discussionwith her children about sexuality in almost every weekend. She hasenough confidence to discuss issues that most of the parents considerto be shameful. Consequently, the interviewee’s children are ableto establish strong relationships with peers of the opposite sex. Inother words, she and her children are able to lead a healthy sexuallife.

Coping

Theinterviewee and her family have faced many problems in life. Some ofthe critical ones that she could remember include the loss of theloved ones, such as her own parents. She is able to share herpersonal issues with close friends only. She solves her problems bycontrolling emotions and analyzing the problem in order to identifyall available solutions.

TheWellness Problems

Thereare two major wellness problems that were identified from theinterview. The first problem is the failure on the part of theinterviewee and the family to observe proper eating habits. The typeof food that people consume has a direct relationship with theirhealth status (Anari, Adetunji, &ampOskrochi, 2014). In addition,consuming healthy foods prevents diseases and gives people a chanceto lead a healthy life (Pkatania, Rapisarda &amp Rizzo, 2016).However, the interviewee acknowledged the fact the she finds healthyproducts more expensive. Therefore, failure to eat healthy foods is awellness problem since they are at the risk of suffering fromdifferent diseases.

Thesecond wellness problem is the lack of readiness to enhance thecognitive capacity. The interviewee believed that her cognitivecapacity is appropriate, which eliminated the need to engage inactivities that could help her improve it further. Cognitive capacityenhances the sensory perception and mental processes (Kuldas, Hashim,Ismail, Samsudin &amp Bakar, 2014). Therefore, the client couldexperience a decline in the capacity to process information due toher reluctance to engage in activities that can improve the cognitivecapacity.

Conclusion

Thehealth assessment is a significant strategy that helps the nurses toconsider the family as a unit of medical care. By interviewing afamily member, it is possible to identify the key health problemsaffecting the rest of the relatives. Therefore, proper interventionsthat address the specific problems affecting the entire family can beidentified and used to enhance its wellness.

Listof Questions

Valuesand health perception

Whatare the key values that you honor as a family?

Whatare the key health goals of your family?

Whatdo you do as a family to maintain your health?

Nutrition

Doesyour family eat healthy meals?

Doesyour family face any challenge accessing healthy foods?

Doesthe family prefer eating food that is cooked at home or restaurants?

Sleep/rest

Howmany hours do you sleep in a day?

Howcozy do you think your bed is?

Atwhat time do you retire to bed?

Elimination

Howoften do you urinate per day?

Howoften do you experience bowel movement per day?

Describeany problem that you have experienced with your bladder or bowel?

Activity

Describethe kind of physical activities that you engage in?

Describehow often you engage in physical activities?

Haveyou joined a fitness club or do you exercise at home?

Cognitive

Howwould you rate your IQ?

Haveyou ever taken an IQ test?

Haveyou ever participated in a cognitive activity?

Sensoryperception

Howwould you describe the functioning of your senses?

Howdo you tell whether you sense are functioning normally?

Doyou experience any problem in your senses?

Self-perception

Whatare the most significant values for you?

Doyou consider yourself to be pessimistic or optimistic?

Wheredo you think you will be in a five years time?

Rolerelationship

Howmuch time do you spend with your friends?

Howmany friends do you have?

Whatspecific factors enable you to keep relationships?

Sexuality

Howmany kids do you have?

Howoften do you engage in a discussion on sexuality with your kids?

Areyour children able to establish relationships with peers of theopposite sex?

Coping

Haveyou ever faced serious problems as a family?

Howdo you share your problems with your friends?

Howdo you solve and cope with challenges?

References

Anari,W., Adetunji, H. &amp Oskrochi, R. (2014). Food and mental health:Relationship between food and perceived stress and depressivesymptoms among university students in the United Kingdom. CentralEuropean Journal of Public Health,22 (2), 90-97.

Kuldas,S., Hashim, S., Ismail, H., Samsudin, M. &amp Bakar, Z. (2014). Theunconscious allocation of cognitive resources to task-relevant andtask-irrelevant thoughts. AustralianJournal of Education and Developmental Psychology,14, 1-16.

Pkatania,M., Rapisarda, P. &amp Rizzo, M. (2016). Food and health habits ofuniversity students: Relationship to food consumption behavior.InternationalFood Research Journal,23 (3), 1239-1247.