Family Nursing: Analyzing the Harrington Family's Health and Structure

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Harrington family within the context of family nursing. The study examines the family's structure, including the roles of the parents and children, and their cultural backgrounds, particularly the ethnic mix of the parents. A genogram and ecomap are used to visualize family relationships and external influences. The report explores family communication patterns, highlighting the importance of open and honest dialogue, and the family's approach to conflict resolution. Furthermore, it delves into the family's values, spiritual activities, and healthcare practices, emphasizing their commitment to health promotion, preventive care, and a balanced lifestyle. The report concludes with recommendations for maintaining and improving the family's health through various strategies such as balanced diets, regular checkups, and stress management techniques. The Harrington's family's dynamics and its impact on family health, including the importance of cultural competence and adaptation to change are discussed in detail.

Running head: FAMILY NURSING 1
Name
Institution
Professor
Date

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Family Nursing
Several authors have come up with different definitions of family. A family is a
characteristic group of more than two people whose interaction is characterized by special terms.
A family relates to birth, marriage, adoption, and choice (Fine and Fincham, 2013). This essay
focuses on Harrington’s family with the aim of identifying the effect of structural patterns and
the role structure to the family. It also examines the family relationships and patterns of
communication and the impact on the family health promotion. This study looks into the
sociocultural information and environment of the family, role structure, values, power structure,
spiritual activities, healthcare, adaptations to conflict and changes.
Harrington’s family is a nuclear family consisting of the father, mother and three
children, one son and two daughters. This family’s unity depends on their closeness. Both
parents work outside home hence collectively providing income. The father works as a lawyer,
and the mother has a home-based business, running a consignment shop in particular. They are
45 years and 38years old respectively. Their children are aged 25 years, 20years and 18years
respectively. They all graduated from Huntington High school and later joined the University of
Houston to pursue different courses. The father is a Japanese while the mother is a black
American. Despite their cultural differences, the parents try their best to socialize with other
families of the same culture with the intention of exposing their children to the behaviors and
values of their cultures. The mother stands in for the father whenever he is not available. Due to
the physical distance between the parents (Sarkisian and Gerstel, 2012).
Both the mother and father are of an upper middle class which means that the family is
financially stable. The parents are highly educated and are employed. The ethnic socialization
efforts of the parents have positively impacted on the children’s lives (Harris, 2008). The family

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has their meals together in the family room to improve their connection. The family values
honesty, kindness, and sincerity.
Harrington’s family genogram
Aurelia (15/3/1980) Harrington 25/2/1973)
Caren (5/3/1998) Sophie (25/4/2000) Liam (9/11/1993)
The genogram indicates that the relationship between Aurelia and Harrington produced
children, one male, Liam, and two females, Caren and Sophie when they were in an enduring
adult marriage and living together. The line connecting the connecting the parents to the children
indicates that they are born of the same parents (Platt and Skowron, 2013). The family has a
strong relationship which is clear from the solid lines in the genogram.

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Ecomap
Work
Social
welfare
Extended
Family
Health
Care
Church
Friends
Culture
School
Aurelia
15/3/1980
Harrington
25/2/1973
Caren
5/3/1998
Sophie
25/4/2000
Liam
9/11/1993

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Both Aurelia and Harrington have strictly followed their culture and also have strong religious
backgrounds. Caren has difficulty in socialization despite her parent’s efforts to encourage her to
socialize. Caren, Liam, and Sophie enjoy going to school and are serious about their studies.
They also take Healthcare seriously and seek both preventive and curative measures. Harrington
and Liam have strong relationships with their friends as indicated in the ecogram.
The family is comfortable with both its privacy and the housing arrangements. The home
has good hygiene practices and no presence of vermin. The Harrington’s family lives in a nine-
room house with proper furnishing and enough toilet facilities in a clean state. They have a large
compound and adequate waste disposal services. The people in the neighborhood live in two-
roomed houses with small compound due to the congestion of houses (Friedman, Bowden and
Jones, 2003).
Family communication is the exchange of verbal and nonverbal information in a family
setting (Epstein, 2016). The Harrington’s family has open and honest communication. The
parents are open to their children on all matters. They contact each other in cases of emergency
which is essential for survival. Whenever there is a problem in the family, they immediately
discuss their issues.
The family involves every member of the family whenever there is a crisis or in decision-
making processes. Whenever there is conflict, they settle it through rational discussion which
categorizes them as a healthy family. The concept of understanding one another in the family is
proof that there is no discrimination regarding power in the family (Sutphin, McDonough and

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Schrenkel, 2013). The parents in the family are the executives, and though the father is
considered the most superior in the family for being the breadwinner, he still acknowledges the
importance of negotiation within the family. The family has learned how to form good
relationships, handle and deal with power, maintaining personal boundaries hence developing the
feeling of being an important member of the family.
Different families have specific roles for different family members depending on the
agreements made. Traditionally, the father was always the one to financially provide for the
family and the mother be the one to babysit the children back home whereas nowadays this is
never the case because both parents come with pay slips and pay cheques home after toiling back
at work. Harrington’s family has always distributed the roles in a way that everyone is satisfied.
For instance, in this family, parents have the role of telling their kids why they made certain
judgments over the others and for the mother, she has always been responsible for the primary
responsibilities such as acting as the caretaker and being responsible for the emotional side of the
family. The father has the partial responsibility for the day to day activities of parental decisions.
He has always assumed the larger role in household duties and raiding the children. The oldest
son has since had the parental role of taking care of his siblings, and at some point, the
grandparents used to visit their place and play a child-rearing role when the parents were at
work.
The Harrington’s family has norms and rules which determine the values of the family.
The parents instill which include treating people and their property with respect. They are
advised to always knock on doors anytime they need to enter their home or their friend’s place.
They are encouraged to be truthful to anyone regardless of their age. The children are motivated
by their parents to improve their abilities which indicates that this is a healthy (Bell, 2009). The

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family is keen on spiritual matters. They attend the Catholic Church every Sunday. This routine
that they follow to the latter without failure. The family always gathers after dinner to have a
spiritual session of prayer together. Prayer sessions ensure that the family members grow closer
to God.
The Harrington’s family instills cultural competences and continuity in their children.
They have always allowed and encouraged their children to interact and socialize with other
children of the same culture hence spreading and continuing the culture. They train their children
to be independent. The parents have always acted as their children’s agent of socialization. They
have also created a foundation for changes in future as the children interact with other people in
the world beyond the family.
Different families have different ways of adapting to their role conflicts, handling
overloads, coping strategies and problem-solving skills. The Harrington’s family handles their
conflicts by negotiating with each other. The coping strategies they use include having emotional
talks or visiting the psychologists and exercising to reduce stress. This family expresses high-
quality negotiation skills during problem-solving which indicates that this is a healthy family
(Maurer and Smith, 2013)
The Harrington’s family believes that illnesses are a result of carelessness, poor hygiene,
lifestyle, climate change and even poverty. They believe that for one to be healthy, he or she has
to avoid the negative causes of disease contact. They perform practices such as good eating
habits, good sleeping habits, reduced or no alcohol intake, increased exercises and frequent
checkups, screening among others. They also advise their children to attend several meetings on
health promotion, read books on health promotion and watch videos on disease illnesses and
health promotion.

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For Harrington’s family to be healthy, they should prioritize preventive care. They should
embrace preventive care by ensuring that they always go for screening services. They should
also take note of their body changes. Observing changes in their bodies will ensure that diseases
are timely detected and treated. They should always eat a balanced diet to achieve a healthy and
required body shape. They should avoid smoking or passive smoking, and they also get their
heart rate up to the aerobic levels (McCormack and McCance, 2011).
The family should practice safe driving and biking. Safe practices will prevent them from
getting injuries which may inflict to much pain. They should avoid stress and always strive to
make the most out of each day. They should adopt behaviors that promote their health through
several ways such as changing prior related behavior such as smoking and personal factors such
as biological, sociocultural and psychological factors. They should visit health care providers
such as Nurses to increase their commitment to engaging in activities that improve their health
(Nutbeam, Harris and Wise, 2010). Attaining this is possible by committing oneself to an action
plan to help reduce and curb the effects.
In conclusion, Harrington’s family is of relatively good health. Despite this, there are
some changes and practices they should put in place to improve their health. The sociocultural
data, spiritual activities, healthcare, socialization, adaptation, and values are those that improve
and promote their health a great deal.

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