Nursing Family Assessment Discussions

The purpose of writing a Family Assessment Paper is to gather one’s thoughts, ideas and insights from our various readings and discussions in order to analyze one family. The media may have given us the idea that a family consists of two parents (of opposite sexes), a stay-at-home Mom (Dad is the breadwinner) and two or three children (seldom adopted). Meeting with the families each of you chose to visit may have provided a view very different from the “idealized” family of radio and television. Change has been part of the evolution of families from the first coming together of individuals in a shared group setting. The Family Assessment Paper will provide an opportunity to examine one family in light of the many aspects of family systems the textbook has brought to light. The paper also considers the energy exchange between the numerous environmental forces that come to bear on families. Placing the family in its community is thought provoking, as well.

ORDER CUSTOM, PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER

You are required to choose a family (not your own) and meet with them for three sessions/visits during the semester in order to complete a thorough family nursing assessment. In Appendix A of your textbook is the Family Systems Stressor-Strength Inventory which should be used to complete your assessment. Chapters 1, 3, 4 and 14 (pp.453-471), along with Appendix A & B in your textbook will assist you with your paper, assessment and evaluation. Please refer to your Family Assessment Grading Rubric

Make sure to address the following content in your assessment and paper:

Description of family as a whole and members
List the members of the family using initials and ages
Complete a genogram of at least three generations starting with parent/child dyad*
Complete an eco-map with energy going in both directions
Identify the subsystems of this family system by roles, interconnection and dimension including generation, sex, interests/abilities and function using Family Systems Theory
Evaluate the boundaries of this family system on a continuum ranging from open (1) to closed (10) including a score and rationale using Family Systems Theory
Identify the family members according to their formal/assigned roles and their informal/ascribed roles. Define the culture and evaluate cultural influence. Reference content on culture.
Consider if family roles are congruent with social norms of the community such as where they live or in the United States as a whole. Evaluate cultural influence.
Identify family’s life cycle stage and development task. Describe how this family is carrying out their developmental stage task. Describe changes in family that are required to proceed developmentally. Include theory used.
Identify strengths and stressors based upon results of all family members who completed the inventory (See textbook p.596). Describe impact of stressors. \
Identify one Family diagnosis & related interventions
*The genogram can be completed using Microsoft Word tools or on-line at http://www.genopro.com/. No handwritten drawings are accepted. If you use the Genopro software program, you must save in an adobe or PDF file. If I can’t open it, I will not be able to grade it.*

Requirements:

Word count to be a minimum of 1000 words
Use APA (sixth edition) style of writingo

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.

Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.

APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.

Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.

LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score. Nursing Family Assessment Discussions

Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.

Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

Nursing Family Assessment Discussions