Three scenarios to select in my practice of family nursing

Introduction
Family nursing is the art and science
of nursing that has developed over the
years and encompasses the nursing
aspect of delivering care services that
are focused on a family, which
functions in the form of a unit
(Deatrick, 2017). In this reflective
assignment, I shall discuss about three
patient scenarios that I would or would
not select in my practice.
Patient scenarios to select
If I were given the chance to select
patient assignments from the list, I
would have selected the cases of (i)
Bernetta Bold, (ii) Dixie Cup, and (iii)
Ian Harris. While the first case study
revolves around isolation in a
septuagenarian widow, following the
death of her husband, the second case
is related to an adolescent who had
been admitted to the psychiatric unit
for depression management. This girl
reportedly became more upset after
being visited by her parents. The third
case is related to a 10 year old boy who
disclosed about being subjected to
abuse.
My decision making process has
been influenced by the fact that while
the first two are related to poor mental
health, the third case of child abuse
generally leads to the onset of
childhood trauma that often triggers a
plethora of psychiatric problems. There
does not occur any health without
mental health (Crowe, Averett, Avent
Harris, Crumb & Littlewood, 2019). My
theoretical knowledge has helped me
realize that in order to attain optimal
health, it is imperative for all people to
accomplish mental, physical and social
wellbeing. I selected the
aforementioned three case studies
since poor mental health creates an
influence on the pattern in which
people feel, act and think.

Bernetta Bold was suffering from
geriatric depression due to the death of
her husband. Spousal bereavement
has been identified as a major aspect of
life stress that commonly makes the
older adults vulnerable to problems
that appear at a later stage in their life
like chronic stress, depression, and
decreased life expectancy (Lee, Lee,
Chun & Park, 2017). Concerning the
second case scenario of Dixie, it was
assumed that depression symptoms in
the teenager manifested in different
manner due to development of bodies,
peer pressure, lack of understanding
parents and change in her hormone
levels, which in turn result in her social
isolation and created an impact on her
personal, social, family, and school life
(Stapley, Target & Midgley, 2017). Ian
might have encountered the Cinderella
effect, the phenomenon where different
kinds of child with treatment and abuse
are committed by step parents, due to
prejudice towards close relative, and
the disagreement between
reproductive partners of devoting their
time to care for an adolescent, who is
an related to one partner (Cabezas,
2016).
Family nursing assessment will
comprise of four components that are
listening to the family members,
engaging then participatory dialogue,
identifying patterns and advocating a
positive change and action. In the first
place, Betty’s children and Dixie’s
parents will be invited for a discussion
where they will be inquired about
reviews about the client, their
willingness to provide assistance, and
decisions about staying together. The
Geriatric depression scale and Hamilton
depression scale and will be used in
both cases, respectively (Durmaz,
Soysal, Ellidokuz & Isik, 2018; Kyle et
al., 2016). A focused depression
assessment will also be conducted in

presence of the family members, where
the number of symptoms, their
frequency, onset, and duration will be
noticed. Nursing assessment will also
involve obtaining and reviewing the
medical, psychological, and
physiological history of the family,
following which both the clients shall be
assessed for associated metabolic and
systematic processes. Family health
promotion will involve increasing social
support by identifying the underlying
reasons behind depression (Von
Cheong, Sinnott, Dahly & Kearney,
2017). The family members of both
Bernetta and Dixie will be asked to
spend adequate time with them. Efforts
will be taken to monitor and promote
physical comfort and nutrition, while
eliminating any inappropriate sleep
patterns. Not only will their strengths
and capabilities be identified and
reinforced with the help of family, but
the latter will also be encouraged to
provide her emotional support through
supportive listening, display of
empathy, hope installation and
pleasant reminiscences. The clients
shall be provided assistant in order to
enhance their emotional and physical
functioning through recreational
therapy (McCormick, Austin & FDRT,
2018). They will also be administered
antidepressant medications, following
the prescription of the physicians. For
the third case, a parenting or family
functioning assessment shall be
conducted to recognize the needs and
strengths of Ian’s family. While Ian will
be assessed for his wellbeing, school
readiness, development, mental health,
and trauma, the parental health,
parental substance use behavior, family
functioning, family history and
parenting skills and competencies shall
also be checked. On identifying the risk
factors, the first priority will be to
ensure his safety and appropriate

medical care will be asked for, if Ian
displays signs of injury or
consciousness alteration. He will also
be subjected to trauma-focused
psychotherapy, while his parents will be
asked to participate in child-parent
psychotherapy programs (Itzin, 2018).
If required, help will also be taken from
child abuse national help lines.
Patient scenarios to not select
If given an option, I would not have
selected the patients Charlie Heron,
Ernie Erbach, and Gary Greenwich.
While the first case involves acute
respiratory distress in a child, the
following cases are associated with
polysubstance abuse and separated
parents, respectively. The decision
making process was influenced by the
fact that a drop in the oxygen levels
compromises other organs and would
require consent of parents for keeping
the child in ventilator for facilitating
breathing (Zeng et al., 2019). Since
the parents were not present, it would
have become difficult to obtain their
consent. The second case involved
polysubstance abuse and was not
selected since in order to treat such
patients it is expected that the former
should inform about every drugs and
medications that they are consuming,
while confirming that none of them
interact negatively with one another.
The third case was not selected since
although there were no apparent signs
of poor physical or mental health. In the
case of Charlie, it was assumed that the
grandparents might not be able to get
a sound understanding of the
treatment. For Ernie, it was anticipated
that different issues associated to
polysubstance abuse might have
altered the physical as well as cognitive
functioning and he might not be in a
sound state to clearly comprehend the
clarifications provided to his health
related concerns. Assumption in the