Family in Health Care
The importance of raising healthy children rests on the family. In the area of labor and delivery (where I practice), the focus on family is ever more intense, seeing as it rests on the family to take care of the child as soon as he or she is born. I have noticed that single mothers have a difficult time, and those who come with their husbands have easier deliveries simply because their family is present. Similarly, I have learned through my experiences with my family and in practice that healthy families are necessary for healthy individuals to exist. In our society, as elsewhere, families are responsible for raising and sustaining their individuals in healthy ways.
Nutrition is as important as respect among family members. Moreover, families are responsible for the good health of their members in that if one of them falls ill, it is quite possible for all others to suffer as well. Contagious diseases are easiest spread within the family. Hence, family turns out to play a role in healthcare that is virtually larger than life.
Most practicing nurses in labor and delivery are aware of how to deal with situations in which the family of the mother and/or the child is present. The complex situations are those in which the family of the mother and child are not present. In these situations, nurses, along with the doctors at hand, must decide on whether to make important decisions concerning the lives of mothers and/or children that are to be born. In certain circumstances, it is quite possible that the mother cannot communicate necessary information to the doctors or the nursing staff; or that the mother cannot make life-changing decisions for her baby and herself. Nursing/medical ethics call for the medical professionals to take into consideration the importance of “autonomy, privacy, and informed consent.”
When it is determined by medical professionals that a patient cannot hold responsibility for “autonomy” and “informed consent” because he or she is not in a state of sound mental health; the medical staff search for family members to help out. Additionally, in complex situations it is especially thought to be important for nurses to be emotionally calm, and therefore reasonable, in order to support the patient at all costs. Whether it is an elderly patient that a nurse must care for, or a mother and child combination, it is crucial to apply ethics in the matter of providing emotional support, regardless of the presence of other family members (Scott et al.).
Nurses are trained to believe that it is best to communicate with family members of a patient in times of crises, and likewise it is always better for the health and restoration of patients for their family members to be around. People who are nurtured and helped during the recovery phase tend to do better than the others, and more so if they are assisted through the healing phase by their very own family members (Scott et al.).
Families are not only important in that they share their meals, which must be nutritious for healthy members of society to be raised; families are also important because diseases can spread among them quite easily. What is more, research has shown that families are the best support systems for patients suffering from terminal illnesses. Milles & Aubeeluck (2006, p. 160) write:
In conjunction with the nurse’s role, family has remained a consistent provider of needs for
those with a terminal illness (Mok et al., 2002). The impact a life-threatening illness has on
the patient and those close to them is well documented (Brown and Stetz, 1999; Flanagan and
Holmes, 2000; Andershed and Ternestedt, 2001; Thomas and Morris, 2002). Moreover, key
Government documents accept, acknowledge and legitimize carers’ interests (Department of
Health, 1995, 2000).
Life-threatening illness does not only impact upon the patients themselves, but also
requires that families take on the role of informal carer (Carers National Association, 1997).
The tasks and burdens associated with caring are often numerous and varied, frequently
changing across the course of an illness (Brown and Stetz, 1999). Tasks can range from
running errands and provision of emotional support to more practical aspects such as assisting
bathing, feeding or other activities of daily living and the management of disruptive
behaviors. Families may have to juggle their lives to make room for these care
responsibilities and their related stressors while continuing in other substantive familial and
social roles such as being a spouse, parent, friend or employee. These tasks often fall to
individuals with close kinship ties, often living in the same house and motivated by love and a
desire to keep their loved one out of an institution. However the burden of care may lead to
relationship difficulties, personality changes and limitations on the carer’s own life, work and
recreation. The care is unpaid and unsupported and may damage the health, wellbeing and
financial security of the caregiver themselves (Addington-Hall and Higginson, 2001).
The above passage explains the importance of professional care givers, that is, nurses, when families get tired of taking care of their loved ones. Moreover, the passage strengthens our understanding about the unique role that families play in labor and delivery, in addition to the healing of cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, etc.
The closest naturalistic and humanistic theory of nursing that relates to the significance of family in healthcare is the theory of Nightingale. This theory essentially calls forth our attention to the importance of good environments. Seeing as families create their own environments it is crucial for them to look after the interests of all members in creating healthy environments. Florence Nightingale would have been a champion of family’s importance in health care if she had not believed that nurses too can work as families must for their ailing loved ones. Being one of the most illustrious and dedicated nurses in history, Florence also stressed the importance of healthy individuals to a society. According to her, healthy individuals make up healthy societies; hence, it is vital to take care of individual health of each family member (Shaner, 2006).
Nightingale’s environmental theory of nursing calls for “ventilation, clean air, control of noise, provision for light, and adequate waste management, etc.” in the recovery phase of an illness (Selanders, 1993). All of these environmental factors covered within the home affect the entire family. Moreover, these environmental conditions are nowadays the talk of global environmentalists. Thus, the relevance of Nightingale’s theory to modern times seems to be that it allows us to relate the family’s analogy to the case of an entire society which is affected by water quality, waste management, etc. Whatever happens to an individual member of the family happens to the whole group we know as family; likewise whatever happens to families also happens to the society at large. Family health, therefore, translates into the nation’s health.
References
Mills, Jayne, Aubeeluck, Aimee. (2006). Nurses’ Experiences of Caring for their Own Family
Members. British Journal of Nursing Vol. 15, No. 3, p. 160-165.
Scott, PA, Valimaki, M, Leino-Kilpi, H, Dassen, T, Gasull, M, Lemonidou, C, & Arndt, M.
“Autonomy, privacy and informed consent: elderly care perspective.” Retrieved 20 May
2007, from Inter Nurse database.
Selanders, Louis C. (1993). Florence Nightingale: An Environmental Adaptation Theory. Ann
Arbor, MI: College of Nursing, Michigan State University.
Shaner, Hollie. (2006). Nightingale’s Philosophical Development. The Nightingale Institute for
Health & the Environment. Retrieved 20 May 2007, from
http://www.nihe.org/philosophy.html.