Family Health Assessment

A family health assessment is an effective tool for determining health issues within family since it helps in analyzing various aspects. The current assessment focuses on the family with two preschool children. The family members answer a range of questions about values, nutrition, health perception, elimination, sleep, activity/exercise, cognitive, sensory-perception, role relationship, self-perception, coping, and sexuality. A family health assessment helps to identify wellness nursing diagnoses.

Values, Health Perception

The family assessment revealed that the main goal of the family is growing children. Therefore, the family members do not have any serious health issues. Only the mother sometimes has headaches due to low blood pressure. The father smokes cigarettes, so he frequently coughs. The son has a weak immune system, so he often catches a cold. In fact, they do not do anything special to maintain their health. The family members visit a doctor only once a year for a regular check. If the individuals experience some influenza’s symptoms, they prefer treatment at home without visiting a hospital. Moreover, they do not take any vitamins or different food to maintain a healthy body and feel good. Smoking does not help to keep them healthy either.

Nutrition

Normally, the family eats healthy foods. They prefer cereals for breakfast, meat with potatoes or pasta for lunch, and some fruits for dinner. However, the parent realize that they do not drink enough water. The adults normally drink tea or coffee, whereas children drink juice or Coke (or other type of soda). The family members could not say exactly the number of calories they consume per day, but they believe that they do not eat too much. Their beliefs are based on their weight. Everybody looks slim. Only the father has belly fat; he says that this problem appeared when he got married because of increasing portions of tasty meals. The family normally eats at home. What is interesting, they harder ever order take away meals or eat outside. The adults believe that fresh homemade food is more appropriate for children. Therefore, the family prefers healthy food. However, they need to pay attention to beverages they drink; particularly, they should increase consumption of water and avoid drinking coffee, tea, and Coke (or other type of soda). Keeping current drinking habits might lead to some serious health issues. For example, even three cups of coffee per day significantly increase the probability of death due to cardiovascular disease (Crippa et al., 2014). Besides, children might repeat the parent’s negative habits.

Sleep/Rest

The family has different sleep needs. The mother and children normally go to bed at ten o’clock and wake up at about seven, so their rest lasts for nine hours. The father often works at night, so he goes to bed and wakes up at different times. The family members have a range of relaxation techniques before going to sleep. First, they take contrast showers. Second, they do not watch TV after eight o’clock. Finally, they have their last meal at six or seven o’clock. Therefore, individuals have enough hours of rest at night. Using relaxation techniques allows everybody having a rest. However, the father’s unstable working schedule could have negative effects on his health because it is healthier to go to bed and wake up at the same time.

Elimination

The mother and children normally have a bowel movement every day, but the father has a bowel movement twice a week. The children urinate six-seven times in 24-hour period. The parents urinate more frequently due to consumption of coffee. The family members have no issues during elimination. At the same time, the father might face some problems in the future because of rare bowel movement. The possible reasons of constipation are the lack of fluid and low physical activity (Costilla & Foxx-Orenstein, 2014). Therefore, he should review his physical activity and diet in order to increase the frequency of elimination.

Activity/Exercise

The parents do not do any physical exercise and have low physical activity. The children do exercise only in pre-school kindergarten. For example, they play ball games, jump, run, and climb every day, which allows them to develop physically. In addition, when they return home, the parents allow them playing sports outside. However, the children prefer to stay home with parents and watch TV or play computer games. In fact, they imitate behaviors of their parents. In the future, this negative attitude to physical activity might lead to overweight, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, or other health issues.

Cognitive

The adults have higher education and prestigious jobs, so they believe that their IQ levels are high. Their children also demonstrate the cognitive development accordingly to their age. The respondents have never taken IQ tests, so they cannot support their assumptions about the cognitive abilities. The children participate in cognitive activities only in kindergarten. The parents hardly ever participate in any cognitive activities. In free time, they prefer to watch TV and chat with friend via social media. Low attention to cognitive development means that the respondents might have issues with their cognitive abilities in the future. The parents demonstrate a negative example to their children, which might have negative effects on them over time.

Sensory-Perception

The respondents’ senses function well. Only the younger child has insignificant problems with a sense of smell due to a frequent rheum. Despite long hours in front of the television, a computer, and gadgets, they have good eyesight. However, the individuals should have more rest for their eyes to avoid issues in the future. Flue might lead to problems with a sense of smell and sense of hearing (Paradis & Messner, 2015). Therefore, the parents should try to take their children to a hospital when some symptoms of flu appear.

Self-Perception

Almost all the family members are satisfied with themselves and their appearances. Only the mother said that she does not like her face due to some wrinkles. The children have a range of talents; they both have dancing and singing abilities. The older child demonstrates excellent results in mathematics. The mother also can dance and sing quite well, but the father could not name any talents or special abilities. Therefore, the man should try to determine which talents he has and develop them. The mother needs to improve her self-perception because negative comments about her face demonstrate that the woman has problems with self-confidence. The children are dreaming about studying at elementary school, whereas the adults are focused on career goals. Thus, the parents are planning to have job promotion. Although career and studying are positive for human development, the family needs to spend more time in other areas of life. Currently, their life is unbalanced.

Role Relationship

The respondents have one-two close friends, but these relationships are durable. The individuals are rather introverted, so they are careful about making new friends. However, they are loyal and uphold relationships with their old friends. The parents always provide assistance and meet with their friends if necessary.

Sexuality

There are two children in the family. They have a daughter aged five and a son aged four. Both children have friends of opposite gender, and they do not have any sexuality issues with them. The parents do not talk about sexuality with children. This topic is forbidden within the family, so this might cause issues in the future. For example, the children might be afraid of telling about their intimate relationships to their parents.

Coping

The adults do not discuss personal issues with the children due to their young age. The children talk to the parents only about minor personal issues. They are afraid of parents’ reaction. The father and mother normally criticize children and only then support them. However, everybody generally tries to solve issues independently.

In conclusion, the family health assessment helped to determine two wellness nursing diagnoses. The first diagnosis is readiness for the enhanced inclusion of children in family discussions and decisions. The second diagnosis is readiness for enhanced increasing of social interaction accordingly to their ages and abilities.