Family self-Care Contract
This is a nursing intervention where a nurse and a family come together to set mutual goals by creating a nursing contract. The established contract is under the control of the family. The nursing contract increases the ability of a family to make appropriate and healthy choices thus enhancing family empowerment (Hockenberry and Wilson, 2018). The family and the nurse note down family strengths and areas which require growth and changes. The family is expected to focus on the set goal and every family member is expected to work towards achieving the goal because it is a key influencer of family success. A well-established family self-care contract consists of the following; assessment of family wellness and identification of improvement areas, contract environmental planning, set goals and reinforcement, developed plan and assigned responsibilities (Liefeld and Troiano, 2017)
The family contract becomes more effective when all the items in the contract are agreed upon by all the family members and signed. The family must agree to provide resources for health care and health behaviors. Some of the resources that the family is expected to take charge of include monetary support, emotional support, information, and direction on healthy behaviors (Rietjens et al., 2017). Precisely, families play a crucial role in promoting the health care services of their members. The family responsibilities in members’ health care services include the provision of adequate shelter, food, and clothing, required health checks and immunizations, socialization among the members, and being role model to junior family members.
I know of a friend’s family consisting of a father and a mother aged 60 and 55 years respectively. The family is blessed with two daughters aged 26 and 18 years. One of the daughters is obese and the parents are also suffering from cardiovascular-related diseases. From the noted cases, I believe that the family members have not been doing regular exercise neither are they taking balanced. Using family self-care contract intervention can help promote physical exercise among the members thus promoting healthy lifestyles and good health in the long run. The family needs to develop the health promotion plan because it can help the family set strict rules in regards to physical exercise and a balanced diet. I would advise the family to create a duty roster for performing regular physical exercise, the duty roster can act as a contact to be signed by all the family members and the health care provider. I would also urge the family to create a diet timetable for weight to be signed by family members and the nurse.
In conclusion, a family self-care contract is one of the most effective nursing interventions. The family and the nurse create a nursing contract highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the family and the nursing goals. The contract is to be agreed upon by all the family members and the healthcare provider. This intervention is an application for various health conditions. For instance, a case where some family members are obese, the intervention can be used to develop a common exercise duty roster and a timetable for a balanced diet.
Response to Stephen. S
I’m very impressed with your post on this week’s discussion. The introduction is descriptive of what you intend to talk about and why the topic is an important area of discussion. You have chosen family health promotion as the nursing intervention for your case. Just like other family nursing interventions, family health promotion is crucial in promoting healthy living lifestyles among the family members and good health. You have elaborately discussed the chosen nursing intervention. Based on your argument, family health promotion enhance the achievement of maximum family well-being. I’m also impressed with how you have explained the nursing intervention deeper, the explanation is more specific and someone can easily understand how the nursing intervention would help the selected family. I also agree with the choice of family nursing intervention in regards to the selected family of your choice. By specifically using routines and family time, the parents will be able to break the pattern of children additions to smartphones thus solving their family crisis (Kaakinen et al., 2018).
In my case, I picked a family self-care contract as the family nursing intervention that was more appropriate for the family. While picking the nursing intervention, I considered the family that I wanted to help encounter their prevailing health conditions. I considered one of my friend’s family which I had noted that some members were suffering from obesity. In most cases, people who are obese rarely do physical exercise and to a greater extent, they normally take food that is full of cholesterol. Therefore, I believed that by doing regular exercise and taking a balanced diet, the affected family members would reduce weight to the normal standard. I picked the family self-care contract because it would help the family remain disciples to exercise duty roster and timetable for reducing weight loss.
Response to Tejinder. S
I enjoyed reading your post regarding this week’s discussion, the post is brief but explanatory. In the introduction, you have indicated what the weekly discussion was all about and the area that your paper will capture. Having such crucial information in the introduction gives your readers the urge to read your work. Your selection of “Family Empowerment and Family Strength-based Nursing Care” as the appropriate nursing intervention for this week’s discussion is strategic because it matches the family health condition that is later discussed in the paper. “Family Empowerment and Family Strength-based Nursing Care” is one of the commonly used family nursing interventions by health care providers, it brings the family together under a common goal. The main target of this nursing intervention is to empower families to plan, set goals, and work toward attaining those goals together. I agree with how you have elaborated on the selected nursing intervention and how you related the nursing intervention with the identified health condition.
Past research has shown that “Family Empowerment and Family Strength-based Nursing Care” promotes collaborations between the nurse and the family thus facilitating information sharing between the two parties (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). The strategy uses the family strength in maximizing family support and response. Your connection to the strategy and the identified health condition is fairly good; I believe that the nursing intervention can help the family control diabetes mellitus which mainly results from a high sugar level in the body. In my case, I selected a “family self-care contract” intervention to help solve the obesity conditions that I had identified from a family friend. I considered the health condition before deciding on which nursing intervention to discuss. Based on my analysis, the intervention is effective in guiding family members on exercise and a balanced diet.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, March 24). Diabetes Risk Factors. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/basics/risk-factors.html.
Hockenberry, M. J., & Wilson, D. (2018). Wong’s nursing care of infants and children-E-book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Kaakinen, J. R., Coehlo, D. P., Steele, R., & Robinson, M. (2018). Family health care nursing: theory, practice, and research (6th ed.). F.A. Davis Company.
Liefeld, J., & Troiano, P. (2017). Training Nurses in Couple and Family Therapy. In Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy (pp. 1-4). Springer, Cham.
Rietjens, J. A., Sudore, R. L., Connolly, M., van Delden, J. J., Drickamer, M. A., Droger, M., … & Orsi, L. (2017). Definition and recommendations for advance care planning: an international consensus supported by the European Association for Palliative Care. The Lancet Oncology, 18(9), e543-e551.