Healthcare Discussion: Assessing Family Values in Diverse Contexts

This assignment presents a student's discussion post addressing the assessment of family values in a healthcare context. The initial post describes a real-life scenario involving a cancer patient undergoing palliative care, highlighting a conflict between the patient's wishes and the family's actions. The student then analyzes the appropriateness of assessing family values based on dominant American cultural norms, arguing against this approach due to cultural diversity and differences in beliefs and economic capabilities. The post emphasizes the importance of avoiding bias and generalizing families. The document includes replies to two peers, further discussing the challenges of balancing patient desires with family values and the application of ethical principles like beneficence and nonmaleficence. The student provides citations from relevant academic sources to support their arguments.

Running head: assessing family values 1
Assessing Family Values
Student’s name
Institutional Affiliation

Assessing family values 2
Initial post
During my placement I encountered a cancer patient who was undergoing palliative care.
The patient had suffered an acute asthmatic attack and he wanted to be discharged so that he
could go home and get assistance from his family members to reduce the hospital costs. O the
other hand, the family did not want the patient to go home as they feared for the patient’s health
even after assuring them that the patient could take his medications from home. The family
members were seeming to be reluctant to take care of the patient as they were not paying
attention to what the patient was saying. This puzzled most of us as it didn’t reflect indigenous
American family values where family members wish to be with the patients for the longest
possible time and most importantly when the patient is undergoing hardships.
In my opinion, assessing the family values according to indigenous American families is
not suitable due to social cultural diversity, differences in beliefs and economic capability of
different families. It is wise for nurses to consider families as single entities rather than
generalizing and using one parameter to gauge all families (Friedman, Bowden, & Jones, 2003).
In the professional field, it is essential to avoid bias as much as possible so as to avoid being
judgmental but rather to understand families as they are without developing an urge to generalize
and stereotype various families depending on how much they differ from the dominant culture.
Post reply to Brittany Kelley
What an amazing post! It is indeed common for human nature for to compare and assess
others by using themselves as the basic standards. In most cases and especially in matters
regarding to culture, values or norms, it is often likely for people to compare and assess others

Assessing family values 3
using the dominant culture of the region argues Boss, Bryant, & Mancini, (2016). I agree with
you that although it seems okay to use the dominant culture as the standard gauge, it’s not the
ideal way of assessing culture and values as it shows bias which is not good for healthcare
workers. In addition, it is not quite good to assume that the American families are the ideal
families or some sort of a mirror in which all other families can be assessed.
Post reply to Benjamin James
This is an awesome post! There are quite a number of times when such a dilemma exists
between the patient’s desires and those of their family. This provides a hard time for clinicians in
their efforts to try and provide the best choice that will suite both parties. As a nurse however,
focusing on the moral and ethical values, it is wise to base decisions of beneficence and non-
maleficence (Brighouse, & Swift, 2014). In the case above, it is quite clear that the family’s
values are centered on the best interests of the patient just like most American families. In the
light of this scenario, assessing family values based on indigenous American families is therefore
a distinctive way of assessing family values.

Assessing family values 4
REFERENCES
Friedman, M. M., Bowden, V. R., & Jones, E. G. (2003). Family nursing: Research, theory, &
practice (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Brighouse, H., & Swift, A. (2014). Family values: the ethics of parent-child relationships.
Princeton University Press.
Boss, P., Bryant, C. M., & Mancini, J. A. (2016). Family stress management: A contextual
approach. Sage Publications.