Family concept Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Family concept - Essay Example Even today, a large number of sick people choose to recuperate from their illnesses at home. It is only when they develop severe symptoms that they feel compelled to visit hospitals. According to Berbiglia (2011) only 5% of all the elderly people are permanent members of institutions. Families are also in the best position to nurse their sick. This is because most people live with at least one family member. This means that family members are in the best position to provide care since there is no cost involved. Families readily accept responsibilities for realizing the self-care of different family members who may fall ill (Casida, Peters and Magnan, 2009). Governmental as well as non-governmental organizations also realize the significance of families in dispensing healthcare services as they often invest resources in them that allow for the family members to be able to conduct self-care responsibilities. A family in any community is responsible for supplying its individual members with certain resources that are necessary for healthy living such as security, clothing, food, shelter, and the right to medical care. Additionally, family-centered health care is based on the notion that the family is the sick person’s main source of support as well as strength. ... Is it the most helpful concept for considering family in nursing practice? Why? Nurses can utilize family strengths as a basic system to encourage the formation of healthy and strong relationships between family care takers and patients. Some of the strong family –related attributes include appreciation and affection, communication, strong spiritual counseling and support, and psychological support when dealing with mental or physical illnesses. With these types of family strengths, nurses can assist a family’s members to identify their hopes and visions for the future and concentrate on them instead of pondering over the issues that likely led to family problems (Casida, Peters and Magnan, 2009). Orem’s theory of self care is a theory that addresses the different types of care that can be provided for a sick person by his or her family. Which of the theories presented in your readings this week is conducive to your area of practice and why? There are three syste ms that are found in the Orem theory: the compensatory structure, in which the nurse is completely in charge of all the care activities associated with the patient, the partial compensatory model, where the patient is able to be responsible for self-administering some care options, and the educative-development model, in which the whole responsibility of overseeing care options falls on the patient and the nurse merely acts in the capacity of a consultant. In Orem's theory of nursing, the family is conceptualized from three perspectives: a) as a dynamic that conditions a person's need for care and capacity to provide care for him or herself b) as a dependent unit of care c) as a service unit. In this theory, nurses recognize that the