February 02, 2012

Family Health Assessment
Gordon’s functional health patterns is a method developed by Marjorie Gordon in 1987 proposed functional health patterns as a guide establishing a comprehensive nursing data base(Kriegler & Harton, 1992). Gordon’s11 functional health patterns are; health perception/ health management, nutrition, pattern of elimination, activity/ excerise, cognitive, sleep/ rest, self perception/ self concept, roles/ relationships, sexuality, coping/ stress and values/ beliefs. By using these categories it’s possible to create a systematic and standardized approach to data collection and enables the nurse to determine the following aspects of health and human function (Kriegler & Harton, 1992). I have completed a family assessment on the Semanovich family using the 11function health patterns created by Gordon. I assessed the family by asking question from each category of the functional health patterns and will briefly discussion my findings in this paper.
Health perception and values are focus on the individual’s perception of their health and their beliefs and values (Edelman, 2010). The health perception of the Semanovich family seen to be center around maintaining their current health by annual checkups, immunization for the kids and eating healthy. Eating healthy is a main focus in this family because Mrs. Semanovich is a diabetic. Mrs. Semanovich developed gestation diabetic’s when she was pregnant with her second son and has been a diabetic since. Mrs. Semanovich takes her medications as prescribed by her physician. She and her husband attend educational classes within the community that teaches them how to live a healthy life with diabetes. No one in this family smokes but Mrs. Semanovich does have a history of smoking, she quit 10 years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Semanovich do socially drink alcohol but no more than 3-5