Monday, March 31, 2008

Family Care


I am half-way through the ten weeks of the online part of the RN Refresher Program.

This weeks required reading from the *textbook includes the chapter FAMILY CONTEXT IN NURSING. A few of the Learning Objectives are: examine current trends in the American family, assess the way family structure and patterns of functioning affect the health of family members and the family as a whole, interpret external and internal factors that promote family health.

The book mentions how much the family has changed from the 1950's. Here's some terms to help define our present world.

Nuclear Family- this family consists of husband and wife and perhaps one or more children
Extended Family- this family includes relatives (aunts, grandparents, and cousins) in addition to the nuclear family
Single-Parent Family-this family is formed when one parent leaves the nuclear family because of death,divorce or desertion or when a single person decides to have or adopt a child
Blended Family this family is formed when parents bring unrelated children from prior or foster parenting relationships into a new joint living situation
Alternate Patterns of Relationships-these relationships include multi adult households, "skip generation" families (grandparents caring for grandchildren) and communal groups with children, "nonfamilies" (adults living alone), cohabiting partners and homosexual couples.

*Basic Nursing
Essentials For Practice
(6th Edition) Potter and Perry

I should be doing my critical thinking and answering the questions at the end of the chapter, but I wanted to post today about a new blogger on my Grand Roll. She's a grandma who is dealing with the family situation, "they come back." Her daughter is moving home for a year with her two sons and her boyfriend. I read the post to my husband this morning. I'm not sure why, but by the end of it I was holding back tears. I think I was touched by her love for her family. She titled the post Sacrifice.

I think her situation fits into the first textbook criteria for FACTORS INFLUENCING FAMILY FORMS--- Economic Factors. The others are Homelessness, and Domestic Violence.

I will leave you with something good from this chapter. It's called Family Hardiness. Family hardiness is defined as the internal strengths and durability of the family unit. Some characteristics of family hardiness are a sense of control over the outcome of life, a view of change as beneficial and growth producing, and an active rather than passive orientation in adapting to stressful events.


Read about a hardy grandmother at www.TCROSS17.blogspot.com

2 comments:

Travelin'Oma said...

I think it's inspiring to realize what different families are dealing with. People can handle their challenges with the strength and support of loved ones around them.

Anonymous said...

It helps us realize that sometimes we are not the only families that face challenges. Plenty people in the world also do. Thanks for sharing the post with us.

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