Family health involves assessing the family health status as a unit by identifying risks that may contribute to certain health conditions and barriers to accessing quality healthcare services (Leahey & Wright, 2016). This provides important information to healthcare providers in implementing health promotion interventions to improve the health of the family as a unit. This is because a negative health outcome on one member will also impact other members in diverse aspects. This is attributed to biological, social, emotional, and environmental connection since family members share similar resources (Leahey & Wright, 2016).
One of the important steps in the provision of healthcare services is that a doctor requests a patient to give a history of medical problems of close members due to the genetic and other factors that are shared by members of the same family. This is evident in some of the chronic illnesses that affect more than one family member in different generations (Leahey & Wright, 2016).
Improving the health of a family as a unit helps members to access the necessary support to address some of the health problems. One strategy for health promotion is enabling individuals to have more control of their health through health education where a family can implement preventive interventions to address any exposure to certain risk factors that contribute to the development of health issues (Grand Canyon University, 2018). Implementing preventive strategies as a family helps in achieving healthcare goals since each family is unique in diverse aspects which means that not all interventions may work in different family settings. A nurse can determine which strategy would best enable the targeted individuals to gain more control over their health by collaborating with the individuals to make healthcare decisions (Grand Canyon University, 2018). This will enable the nurse to determine the effectiveness of the strategy based on their setting as well as access to important resources required in implementing the strategy.
References
- Grand Canyon University. (2018). Health Promotion: Health and Wellness across the Continuum. Grand Canyon University.
- Leahey, M., & Wright, L. (2016). Application of the Calgary Family Assessment and Intervention Models: Reflections on the Reciprocity between the Personal and the Professional. Journal of Family Nursing, 22(4):450-459.
