CHILD AND FAMILY NURSING PRACTICE.

Running head: CHILD AND FAMILY NURSING PRACTICE
CHILD AND FAMILY NURSING PRACTICE
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1CHILD AND FAMILY NURSING PRACTICE
Part 1: Nursing Care Plan
Challenges
One of the major challenges is the aggressive behavior demonstrated by Lucy. It has been
evidenced by Logan-Greene and Jones (2015), that aggressive behavior across children in the
family results in adverse physiological as well as psychological consequences upon every family
member. Lucy’s recent aggressive behaviors and tantrums have not only become an issue of
annoyance for Jin, but has also affected Lucy’s lifestyle, both during the day as well as at night.
According to Tucker, Rodriguez and Baker (2017), neglectful behavior by parents is a
strong determinant of aggression in children. Both Daiyu and Jin now have little time to care for
Lucy which has in turn, led to the present challenge. Emotional stress and trauma in children, as
researched by Camilo, Garrido and Calheiros (2016), are also associated with aggressive
behavior across children. The Zhang household is currently preoccupied with a stressful situation
of bowel cancer in Wei, for which, Lucy’s parents have diverted their attention from their
children.
Individual family members are also found to encounter a number of challenges: Ling
feeling burdened due to her responsibilities of being the sole caregiver for Wei, the financial
burden encountered by Jin due to lack of Medicaid and Daiyu feeling upset as a result of familial
expectations and being away from her parents.
Plan
As postulated by the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA, 2019),
one of the major responsibilities of community nurses include a comprehensive identification of

2CHILD AND FAMILY NURSING PRACTICE
the multifaceted hurdles encountered by families which hinder their health and wellbeing. Thus,
the community nurse must develop a nursing care plan in accordance to a social model of health.
As per the social model of health, an individual’s current state of health and disease are a result
of multiple factors across social, political, cultural and environmental levels (Sallis, Owen &
Fisher, 2015).
As researched by Ban and Oh (2016), a lack of adequate parental care or neglect from
parents are the key contributors to aggressive behavior in children. Thus, a key community
nursing goal must include the management of aggression in Lucy by taking responsibilities of
her care needs. The next factor which must be targeted by the community nurse \ are social and
cultural issues within the Zhang family, primarily the burden of conception faced by Daiyu by
her parents and the burden encountered by Ling as the sole caregiver of Wei. Lastly, the
community nursing care plan must also address the political factor of lack of Medicare and
financial burdens encountered by Daiyu and Jin. Indeed, it has been evidenced that an
individual’s health and wellbeing, in addition to disease, are affected by the prevalence or lack of
familial support and availability of adequate healthcare services (Adler, Glymour & Fielding,
2016). Hence, it is for this reason that the community nurse must adhere to a social model of
health and according formulate a holistic care plan addressing the social, political and cultural
challenges troubling the Zhang family (Garg, Toy, Tripodis, Silverstein & Freeman, 2015).
Implement
Children during the first few years of their life, have an intrinsic need to share an
affectionate bond with their parents, especially their mother, and are dependent on them to
support their emotional as well as physiological development. A lack of fulfillment of
attachments induce aggressive behaviors in children as well as delay their achievement of

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developmental milestones (Meins, Bureau & Fernyhough, 2018). This is extensively observed in
Lucy’s regression to an inability to fulfill her toilet training needs without assistance. Further,
children like Lucy, lack the vocabulary to communicate their concerns and hence, revert to
aggressive behaviors as an attempt to express their need to be attended to and feel loved by their
parents (McElwain, Holland, Engle, Wong & Emery, 2015). As directed by the Department of
Health (2019), a key of role of community nurses is to provide ‘in-home’ nursing care and
assistance for families unable to visit healthcare organizations. In this case, considering the busy
schedules encountered by Daiyu and Jin as well as their traveling expenses the community nurse
can address this care plan objective by attending to Lucy’s toileting needs. Additionally, patient
advocacy, imparting patient education and referral recommendations also fall under the scope of
practice of a community nurse (APNA, 2019). Thus the community nurse can also recommend a
referral of In Home Care (IHC). IHC services aim to deliver childcare and education in the
homes of families and hence, can be of special benefit to the Zhang family where both Jin and
Daiyu are working (Australian Home Childcare Association, 2019). Additionally, the community
nurse and IHC service provider must work collaboratively with the Zhang family using family
centered approaches and communicate and provide assistance on strategies with which Jin and
Daiyu can revert a significant section of their time to their children (Lor, Crooks & Tluczek,
2016).
Ling is feeling emotionally stressed and burdened due to her responsibilities of being the
sole caregiver of Wei in his deteriorating condition of bowel cancer. Lack of support and
communication often result in consequences like compassion fatigue, burnout, stress and feelings
of disregard and apathy towards personal as well as familial responsibilities – which are
observed prevalently in Ling (Lynch, Shuster & Lobo, 2018). Provision of assistance for