Family Assessment: Functional Health Patterns
Pamela Obiadi
Grand Canyon University: NRS-429V-O507
May 10, 2015

Family Assessment: Functional Health Patterns
The selected family is the Nguyen family, who are originally from Vietnam. They came to America in 1993; and have lived in the U.S. for over 20 years. Their family consists of father, mother, two boys and two girls. Given that this family has been in the U.S. for a long time, it is interesting to evaluate their health patterns from various perspectives. This paper is aimed at summarizing the health patterns of Nguyen family and identifying wellness-nursing diagnosis based on the findings from the assessment.
Summary of Findings
While summarizing the findings obtained from the family assessment conducted, emphasis will be centered on the identified functional health patterns.
Values, health perception
Similar to the Chinese, Nguyen family shares a common cultural perception of health. They believe that one’s well being is derived from maintaining a balance of energies in the body, called “yin and yang.” Their health-seeking behaviors are a result of a combination of both their traditional value system as well as Western remedies. However, they mentioned that there is stronger preference to rely upon traditional remedies prior to seeking Western remedies. Examples of traditional remedies commonly used by this family are the use of herbs and coining (Nguyen Family, personal communication, May 7, 2015). Generally, coining and pinching is a special massage technique that is used to treat fever and illness (Wang, 2012). The idea behind coining, as explained by this family, is that it helps to get rid of any negative energy causing illness. As for Western remedies, they would sometime take medications, like antibiotics and NSAID, to treat certain bacterial infections or to relieve pain. Nevertheless,