Nursing Care of the Family: Assessment, Planning, Implementation and Evaluation

Running head: NURSING CARE OF THE FAMILY
Nursing Care of the Family: Assessment, Planning, Implementation and Evaluation
Name
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Word Count: 2092

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Part 1: Family Assessment
Summary of Brown Family Structure
Sheila is a 24 year old stay at home mom who is married to Scott, a 38 year old
accountant. Before they met, Scott was married two times before, first to Lydia with no
children, the second to Shelly and they had three boys aged ten, eight and six years. Sheila
and Scott have two children, Olivia who is two years old and Leo, a newborn of four weeks.
Both Sheila’s parents, Mary and Keith, live two hours away from Sheila and come to visit
during the weekends but preferably when Scott is not around because they have a strained
relationship with him.
Scott lost his father two years ago to bowel cancer and his mother, Brydey, lives two
hours away in assisted living. Sheila met Scott’s parents once during their wedding two years
ago. She has never been employed since she finished schooling in TAFE and now wants to
work part-time as a teacher. This will be difficult because she will have to go to school. Her
other option is to look for a part-time bookkeeping job but she will do this once Leo is older.
Scott has a busy schedule and often comes home late with his work. He puts pressure on

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Sheila to keep the house clean and have dinner ready before he gets. Sheila finds this difficult
on top of having a new born child and a toddler who is still in nappies, doesn’t eat well and
doesn’t get enough sleep. She is feeling tired because she hasn’t slept in four weeks and feels
isolated because they have one car and the nearest bus stop is one kilometre. This also makes
it hard to take Olivia to daycare and the child has become withdrawn with tantrums.
Strengths of the Brown Family
The two strengths identified for the Brown family based on AFSNAG are support and
resilience (Barnes & Rowe, 2008, p.14). In support, Sheila does not receive much help from
her husband Scott because expects Sheila to cook and clean for him without offering help.
Sheila has support from her parents Mary and Keith who visit during the weekends. They
want to come more often to help Sheila with the kids and housework but because of their
strained relationship with Scott, it has become difficult. Because of the lack of support from
her husband, any observer looking at the Brown family would conclude that Sheila is alone.
Except for her parents, Sheila has no one to look out for her because Scott is
constantly busy with his job and does not help with the kids or housework. In resilience
(Barnes & Rowe, 2008, p.14), Sheila still has hopes of working part-time as a teacher but she
wants to be a bookkeeper first once Leo is older. This keeps her hopeful even though Scott
wants her to stay at home. In terms of crisis, the family has not dealt with a crisis ever since
Scott and Sheila have been married. She is currently having problems with Olivia because
she doesn’t sleep and eat well. Sheils has also not slept for the last four weeks since Leo was
born. She is dealing with these problems on her own because Scott has not made efforts to
offer assistance.

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Part 2: Planning, Implementing and Evaluating
Description of issue
Sheila is a stay at home mom with two children and they live 40 kilometers away
from the town. They have only one car and the nearest bus stop is one kilometer away.
Because of this, it becomes difficult for her to go anywhere with her children. Her husband
Scott has a busy work life and the only people that come to see her are Mary and Keith, her
parents. One issue that is affecting Sheila is social isolation which refers to how an individual
feels they don’t belong, lacks engagement with others (family or friends) and lacks any
meaningful or fulfilling relationships (Alspach, 2013).
Social isolation differs from loneliness which is a feeling of not belonging and lacking
any meaningful relationships. Researchers in the field of psychiatry agree that loneliness is
the embodiment of social isolation while others see it as a distressing feeling that results from
comparing one’s actual relationships to desired relationships (Steptoe, Shankar, Demakakos
& Wardie, 2013). Human beings are social animals and social relationships are seen as a vital
component of life. Having a strong and positive relationship is good for the health while
negative relationships can be harmful (Ge, Yap, Ong & Heng, 2017).
Planning Nursing Care
A nursing goal that can be used for Sheila is to increase her social interaction and
communication with other people (Swearingen, 2016). She can do this by interacting with
neighbors, community coordinators or local pastor who can then connect her with other
people. Because they live 40 kilometers from town, it can be assumed they live in a remote or
rural area. There are studies done in Australia which have shown that people living in rural