Family Nursing Process

Family Health Assessment

• 1st major phase of the nursing process.
This includes:
• Data collection
• Data analysis (interpretation)
• Problem definition (nursing diagnosis)
2 Major Types of Assessment
A. First-level Assessment
• Wellness state
• Health threat
• Health deficit
• Foreseeable crisis
Wellness State
- stated as potential or Readiness-a clinical or
nursing judgment about a client in transition
from a specific level of wellness or capability
to a higher level.
Health Threat
- conditions that are conducive to disease and
accident, or may result to failure to maintain
wellness or realize health potential.
Health Deficits
- instances of failure in health
maintenance.
Foreseeable Crisis
- anticipated periods of unusual demand
on the individual or family in terms of
adjustment/family resources.
B. Second-level Assessment
- Defines the nature or type of nursing
problems that the family encounters in
performing tasks with respect to a given
health condition or problem and the
etiology or barriers to the family’s
assumption of these tasks.
Steps in Family Nursing Assessment
A. DATA COLLECTION
1st Level
A.1 Family Structure, Characteristic & Dynamics
A.2 Socio-economic & Cultural Characteristics
A.3 Home and environment
A.4 Health Status of each member
A.5 Values and practices on health
promotion/maintenance and disease prevention
 2nd Level
▫ The family’s perception of the problem
▫ Decisions made and appropriateness; if none,
reasons
▫ Actions taken and results; if none, reasons
▫ Effects of decisions and actions on the family
members.
A.1 include composition and demographic data,
relationship to the head, place of residence, type of
family, communication and decision making
patterns.
A.2 include occupation, place of work, income of
each working member, educational attainment of
each member, ethnic and religious affiliation, role
they play in the family, relationship of the family to
the larger community
A.3 include information on housing and sanitation
facilities, kind of neighborhood and availability of
social, health, communication and transportation
facilities in the community.
A.4 includes current and past significant illness;
beliefs and practices conducive to health and illness;
nutritional and developmental status; PA
assessment findings
A.5 include use of preventive services; adequacy of
rest/sleep, exercise, relaxation activities, stress
management or other healthy lifestyle activities, and
immunization status.
Data Gathering and Methods
A. Health Status of Family
A.1 Observation
A.2 Physical Examination
A.3 Interview
A.4 Record Review
A.5 Laboratory/Diagnostic Test
A.1 done with the use of sensory capacities
- communication and interactions
use and tolerated by the family members.
- conditions in the home and
environment
- role perception, decision making
pattern
A. 2 Significant data about the health status
of individual family members can be obtained
through direct examination.

A.3.1 completing a health history for each

family member.
A.3.2 personally asking significant family
members questions regarding health.
A.4 information gathering through review of
existing records or reports pertinent to the
client.
A.5 data collection through performing lab
test, diagnostic tests
Data Analysis
Prioritizing Health Problems
1. Nature of the condition or problem presented
• Wellness state/potential
• Health threat
• Health deficit
• Foreseeable crisis
2. Modifiability of the condition or problem
- Probability of success in enhancing the wellness
state, improving the condition, minimizing/alleviating
or totally eradicating the problems.
3. Preventive Potential
- Refers to the nature and magnitude of future
problems that can be minimized or totally
prevented if intervention is done.
4. Salience
- Refers to the family’s perception and evaluation of
the condition or problem in terms of seriousness and
urgency of attention needed.
 CRITERIA WEIGHT
1. Nature of the condition or problem presented 1
Scale** Wellness state 3
: Health deficit 3
Health threat 2
Foreseeable crisis 1
2.Modifiability of the condition or the problem 2
Scale** Easily modifiable 2
: Partially modifiable 1
Not modifiable 0
3. Preventive potential 1
Scale** High 3
: Moderate 2
Low 1
 CRITERIA WEIGHT
4. Salience scale 1
Scale** A condition or problem, needing 2
: immediate attention

A condition or problem not needing 1

immediate attention

Not perceived as a problem or 0

condition needing change
Scoring:
1. Decide on a score for each of the criteria.
2. Divide the score by the highest possible score and multiply by the weight.
(Score/Highest Score) x Weight
3. Sum up the scores for all the criteria. The highest score is 5, equivalent to the
total weight.