Family Values in Healthcare

Family Values in Nursing

There is much credence to the idea that families work together in promoting either bad or good values as it relates to eating habits, general health habits and general health practices. Indeed, a family works as a system, good or bad, to perpetuate good things or bad things over the course of its functioning and existence. Much the same thing happens with nursing as a group of nurses often functions in much the same way as a family. The author of this report will offer theories that add to the body of knowledge being alluded to above and there will be references provided supporting the point. Whether one is speaking of a group of nurses or an actual family, both good and bad habits can manifest and this can lead to success or problems as time drags on.

Analysis

While genetics and predispositions in general have a demonstrable effect on why families do what they do and live the way they live, the presence of peer pressure, influence and patterns of any sort also explain the fact that families behave and misbehave from a healthcare and lifestyle standpoint in much the same manner. Much of the peer pressure and influence comes from sources exterior to the family such as from advertising and so forth. However, people that are in close family units tend to rise and fall together in terms of what they do right and what they do wrong. Even further, the influences of the family, both genetic and behavioral, are often never overridden or changed by the people outside of the family. Even overt actions from the government will tend not to change overall patterns (SCU, 2015).

The Centers for Disease Control says much the same thing in one of their fact sheets about family history and its effects. Indeed, they also mention that families obviously share genes and this has an influence on healthcare outcomes and events. However, like the prior source, they also mention that behaviors and controllable outcomes also tend to follow the same arcs. At the top of the fact sheet, they explain that most people know that risk of disease can be reduced by a healthy diet, getting enough exercise and not engaging in smoking. However, it is then noted that family history is one of the strongest influences in whether one develops heart disease, stroke, diabetes and/or cancer. Then, however, the CDC delivers the so-call "money quote" that pertains to this report when they say "family members share their genes, as well as their environment, lifestyles and habits" (CDC, 2015). In other words, good behaviors will typically be present in family units in that all of the people in the unit will probably share much or most of the same overall patterns and habits…good or bad.

Of course, this concept of family and how behaviors are "contagious" could easily be transferred to the realm of nursing. Nursing is very stressful and tends to burn out people. Nursing requires a concept of family and teamwork that very few jobs demand and necessitate. Indeed, the quality of life (if not the lives themselves) of the people involve are legitimately at risk and this means that the nurses (not to mention the doctors and other clinicians" work as a group…or a family. Just as with traditional blood- or marriage-related families, a nursing family can be dysfunctional or it can function well. Most times, it is in the middle of that spectrum. The concept of family most used in the practice of the author of this report would certainly be the bond and calling that we all share. The general idea and feeling is that the group rises and falls based on the outcomes that exist. If one of us has a bad day, the others try to support and feel empathy for that person. If the team needs to mobilize and get to work, then that is what the team needs to do. It is the most helpful part of the job because everyone is not functioning on their own little island. People actually care about each other and that matters.

As for what theories are helpful, some nursing teams out there go so far as to link family and the nursing team in their rhetoric and advertising. One such example is the Nurse Family Partnership. In that program, a long-tenured and well-trained public nurse is teamed with a family and that nurse basically becomes an extension of that person's or group's family. They cite the example of a woman who becomes pregnant before they are ready to take care of a child. They note that many women in such a situation toil with poverty, conflict and despair. The Nurse/Family Partnership is a way to provide low-income and first-time parents with a strong family-like relationship that they can count on. They note that such a relationship has several demonstrable benefits:

It tends to greatly improve pregnancy outcomes by helping women engage in good preventative healthcare practices and get prenatal care

The women involved tend to use less alcohol, cigarettes and illegal substances in general and eat a better diet

There is an improvement in child health and development by helping patients provide responsible and competent care

The economic self-sufficiency of the mother is improved as they are able to plan future pregnancies, continue their education and find work (Nurse Family Partnership, 2015).