Family Focused Nursing Care

Nurses have an ethical and professional duty to provide care that is directed towards the health of the client, family, and community under their care (Canadian Nurses Association, 2008). Also, every patient is a product of a family and families make the backbone of a society; hence, families have a unique impact on the health and well-being of its individual members. Family focused nursing care is achieved through practices that consist of collaborative relationships with families and nurses’ sound intervention knowledge and skills. Family nursing has evolved over many decades, helping nurses in the way they interact, think, and work with families. This may include the way nurses collect health information, provide interventions that meet

With my understanding of terminal illness, the family’s developmental stage, and their cultural background, I endeavored to create an environment of trust, support the patient’s spouse to participate in her care, and support the family with their hospitalization experience. Working my three shifts with this family, I advocated for them and met many of their concerns. In some instances, I had to alter my plan of care to accommodate their needs. For example, during my second shift with this family, the spouse told me that the patient could not sleep at night due to beeps from the infusion pump. For me, I reassured him that I would do all I can to see that she had time to sleep during the day. For this reason, I adjusted my interventions to accommodate this plan. While caring for this client, I also provided support for her spouse by encouraging him to take breaks, get some food to eat, and rest for a while. In many cases, I asked the patient and her husband if they had concerns they would want addressed, due to the language barrier. Where I discovered I cannot accommodate their wishes, I also explained to them the reason for such and how I planned to have things done. For example, coming to my shift the second day, her husband wanted me to change the tube feed which still had about six hours of feed left. I explained to him that I would have it done, but it would not be at that particular time because I would like the patient to rest, provide care for my other patients, and the fact that there was so much left in the bag. At other instances, I provided information as to what I was doing and my rationale. For example, the patient’s spouse asked why I was infusing 55ml of a medication instead of 50ml in the bag. I used this opportunity to enlighten him that using 50ml would leave some of the medication in the bag which means that the patient is not getting all the medication. All that said,