Family Health Assessment
Wilson K. A Nyamwatta
Grand Canyon University: NRS-429V (NRS- 429V) Family Centered Health Promotion
November 25, 2012

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There are three methods of data collection employed by community nurses to obtain community assessment data. They include observation, interviews and measurement; the observation method also referred to as the windshield survey that includes the use of all the senses i.e. sight, touch, smell, hearing and taste to ascertain community appearances, noting the status of residential buildings, the people and their physical and biological surroundings.
The second method is the measurement technique that utilizes tools to quantify information obtained from the community. They type of data obtained using this method includes mortality and morbidity rates, census, population statistics and other epidemiological statistical data. These types of data can easily be obtained from private and public or government agencies.
Lastly, the most famous source of information from the community is talking to people in the particular community. The residents form a very important way of learning about the community concerns, strengths, weaknesses and their perception of their community as a whole. This method requires formulating a set of questions specific to target areas. This assignment used the interview method of data collection to complete my family’s assessment of the Gordon’s eleven functional health patterns.
Under the values and health perception: our family perceives a healthy status to be simply the absence of disease and the ability for a family member to stay away from going to the hospital often. The biggest threat to our family was revealed as malaria, a disease caused by mosquitos. According to the International Medical Corps, a child dies every minute in Africa from malaria. The family ensures that everyone in the family sleeps under a treated mosquito net, discourage having any stagnant water in the environment with the city officials spray any stagnant waters in the environment to eliminate mosquito breeding grounds.
Our family still believes in preparing most of the food at home as a way to control what is put in the foods and as a cost-reduction emphasis. In the nutritional-metabolic patterns, our family strives to buy its food supplies from the nearby farmers’ open-air market which supplies fresh organic vegetables and meat products. The family sticks to the tradition of serving only three meals – breakfast, lunch and supper without snacks between meals as most of the American families do.
The elimination pattern revealed how the community is affected by climatic changes and how hazardous waste, plants, and disease agents. The community dreads the malaria season which coincides with the rainy seasons; March to May the long rains season and November to December the short rains. Mosquitoes breed in stagnant waters that are available during the rainy season. The community with the help of the local government stays busy spraying stagnant water during these two seasons.

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Under activity- exercise pattern; our family is very active not by choice but by circumstances in the community. The family walks to and from work and school due to unreliable public transport and economic reasons. The family understands that remaining active daily decreases the risk of diseases such as diabetes, obesity and heart disease. Most of the family members are also involved in sports after work and or school making it almost impossible to come across an overweight individual within the community.
Most members of the family work during the day with everyone sleeping at night. Our parents make sure that supper is served by 7AM every night so that everyone retires to bed by 9pm every night and wake up by 6 AM except weekends where we were allowed to sleep in till 8AM. The belief that enough sleep and rest made us healthy and ready for the next day made our parents be very strict on sleep-wake times. The only disturbances to the sleep-rest pattern at nights is mostly occasional excessive noise during traditional overnight funeral gatherings that usually run for at least a week or two.
Under the cognitive –perception functional pattern, our dad remains the decision maker concerning healthcare and other resources for the family with elected officials making community decisions for the broader community at the City Hall.
Under the self-perception-self-concept pattern; the community works together in virtually everything that affects the community health and security. Recently, every community member was involved in the World Clean Up by cleaning up around your houses. This initiative was a huge success considering it was a voluntary activity with no financial rewards but for the healthy neighborhood. The community is also brought together during elections in order to elect the best public official who will represent the community’s best interest. It is clear that members of our family are proud of the community as are other members of the community. Everyone loves to identify with their community even though it is a low income neighborhood.
The roles-relationship pattern revealed how close knit the community is when it comes to healthcare issues, social networking aimed at meeting community health goals. The community relies heavily on the media for enhanced flow of information throughout the community supplemented by community members appointed to local health programs. Information is obtained by the appointed community members from the individuals on the ground. These appointed officials are members who live within the community and get first-hand information of concerns, security and even crimes making them very valuable to nurses who will be looking for information about the community. These are the same people who the community rely on to communicate with other communities to achieve progress in healthy status of the broader community.

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The sexuality-reproductive pattern in our community revealed a divided opinion concerning sex education in elementary schools with members who are Catholics opposing this idea while the rest of the community preferring the contrary. The community encourages marriages between their own tribes but when intermarriages with other outside communities occur, they equally support it. However, the community unanimously discourages marriages between members below ages twenty-five years of age. We all believe that marriages below the said ages have very little chances of succeeding because the members would still be in school and jobless. Perhaps, this may explain the low rates of divorces in the community. Members in the community stay in their first marriages until death separates them although this is changing nowadays with an increase in members of the community visiting Western countries, mostly the US and the UK, then bringing back home new cultures and ideologies.
The community copes and adapts to shortages of health resources by engaging in community programs tailored to prevent diseases with the understanding that this will serve to reduce demand of healthcare resources. The community shares the values of discouraging any type of crime or misuse of scarce healthcare resources by being vigilant and hard on any member who gets involved in any of these activities. Family members who are going through rehabilitation from substance abuse are helped by other community members and local government officials with the necessary resources and support in dealing with this type of situation because we believe it affects the whole community.
Under the values-beliefs pattern, the community still trusts in prevention of diseases by encouraging vaccinations despite recent rumors that the polio vaccine had some elements of family planning ingredients disguised in the vaccine. These rumors were quickly disapproved by the Ministry of Health as announced in the local media stations. The community values health promotion and prevention because they understand that is the only way to preserve their limited healthcare resources.
In conclusion, this community still has a lot to learn about accepting the fast changing social ways of life and that the earlier the community accepts the reality, the better they can start coping with all these changes. These changes include the increase in crime rates, intermarriages, sex education in schools, substance abuse and the increase in industrial hazardous wastes around the community.
Due to the rigidity of sex education, the appropriate wellness diagnosis will be “risk for ineffective sexuality patterns” and “impaired adjustment” related to inability to accept reality in social lifestyle changes.

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References: www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/ Edelman, C., & Mandle, C. L. (2010). Health promotion throughout the life span (7th ed., p.175). St. Louis, MO: Mosby/Elsevier.

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