Family Function and Its Significance in Healthcare Outcomes

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
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1
NURSING
Much research has been done in the recent past to understand the role of family function
within societies. It has been reported that the concept of family function is of much significance
as the impact of family in health care outcomes is distinct. Families in the societies of
contemporary era are known to have an association with transfer of moral and social values into
health beliefs of individuals. Family strength is an extensively analyzed concept in healthcare
sector and the family strength framework is now been applied for optimizing healthcare services.
The present paper has the focus on identification of the concept of family in the contemporary
society. It further describes the family strength framework and analyzes the concept of family
strength in relation to health care practice.
According to Murati (2016) a family is to be understood as the foundation stone of a
society and social theorists point out a family to be the most fundamental unit of social
organization. In my viewpoint, the functions that families play in a society differ extensively
between the contemporary era and the time a few decades back. Alexy (2016) argued that the
underlying cause of such a transformation is the involvement of external agencies in varied tasks
to be delegated by the families otherwise. The significance of family involvement in matters of
increased well being is therefore becoming diminished. Smith and Ford (2013) stated that the
vital functions that a family is required to carry out are still prominent. The only change that has
occurred that is that the actions are performed as per the standards and trends of the
contemporary and modern society. Social and cultural beliefs and settings go to a great extent to
influence the functioning of families.
Julien-Chinn et al. (2017) highlighted that the unique perspective of family strength is
related to the different attributes of family functioning. The primary qualities that come into
focus in this regard are commitment, affection and appreciation, time together, positive
communication, ability to cope with crisis and stress, and sagacity of spiritual well-being. The
much discussed family strength framework is founded on the basis of the mentioned attributes
and qualities. These on a comprehensive manner make up the cornerstone of care approaches. A
family can function in an optimal manner in an environment where individuals are provided with
support and guidance in different spheres of life. The strengths of each of the families are unique,
and vary largely between each other. The framework focuses on the capabilities and potential