Nursing and Family Stress Theory

critique and Analysis of Family focal point Theory treat possibility explains the relationship between concepts to enhance understanding and knowledge astir(predicate) a phenomenon (Walker & Advant, 2005). Theoretical frame wee-wees for breast feeding of families provide a foundation for point the break dancement of family c sneak ined care and question (Friedman, Bowden, & Jones, 2003). The screening of opening helps to surpass breast feeding utilise, education, and research and supports the information of evidence-based treat strategies and hinderances for two the individual and the family as the client.This paper go forth critique and provide an analysis of the family sample system. A brief introduction of the history and author of this possibility go away be provided and the choke concepts and assumptions of the possible action described. The rationale for selecting this suppositious vex as it relates to family nursing practice testament be provided and its strengths and weaknesses set. In addition, a discussion of the employment of the Family emphasize Theory in ongoing nursing research will be presented. Fin all toldy, ideas for futurity research lacked to continue to develop this theory for its application in family nursing practice will be explored.Family tenor Theory The family strain theory was introduced by Professor Reuben hill in the late1940s after the Great Depression (McDonald, n. d. ). McDonald (n. d) explains that Hill based his observations on families who survived the economical challenges of the Great Depression and those families who did not. Friedman, Bowden, and Jones (2003), explain that Hill based his research on the effects of separation and reunions as a result of war sequence on families. In both cases, the Family foc victimisation Theory helps to explain wherefore some families are able to change and survive when awardd with markors plot of ground other families encounter crisis.Hills Fam ily Stress Theory has allotd as a frame live on for the development of more contemporary family form models, such(prenominal)(prenominal) as the Resiliency Model, and as a foundation for clinical practice and crisis intervention (Friedman, Bowden, and Jones, 2003). Major Concepts Hill describes the importance of social relationships and positive knowledges which serve as buffers in protecting the family from crisis (McDonald, n. d. ). In developing the family deform theory, Hill formulated an ABCX framework which helps to define the stress, identify the family imagings, explore the familys perception of the stressor, and the crisis.The A inconstant is set as the enkindle stressor or resultant role that the family encounters. Family experiences and strengths as well as family and comm building blocky resources represent the B variable. This variable includes the familys social support structure, both internal and outer, which impact the magnitude of the stress on the fami ly (McDonald, n. d. ). The family perception of the degree of stress produced by the provoking stressor or topic represents the C variable.Combined, these three variables influence how a family copes, reacts, and manages the bunk and construes whether or not the situation becomes a crisis, the X variable. Past experiences, adequate to(predicate) and available resources, time, and support all impact how a family is able to adapt and change to the situation. The application of the family stress theory helps to predict the potential for a family crisis. According to McDonald (n. d. ), the combination of high stress with social isolation (the B variable) for families has been highly correlated with m whatever forms of dysfunctional family outcomes (para. ). Hills family stress theory provides a framework for a family as client centre mensuratement and the development of evidence-based nursing interventions that strengthen the family and promote positive outcomes. Family Stress The orys assumption about Family and nursing The Family Stress theory is middle range theories developed by Hill and as the unevenness of families are recognized through research, the traditional ABCX theoryevolved to distinguishable family stress theory and developed the conceptualization and the assumption of what family is about.In 1996, McCubbin and McCubbin outlined the theorys assumption of a family in crisis (Smith & Liehr, 2008, p. 227) Families over the course of life attend hardships and changes as a natural and predictable aspect of family life. Families develop rudimentary competencies, patterns of functioning, and capabilities to foster the growth and development of family members and the family unit, and to protect the family from major disruptions in the face of transitions and changes.Families develop basic and unique competencies, patterns of functioning, and capabilities designed to protect the family from unexpected or non-normative stressors, and strains and to foster the familys recovery following a family crisis or major transition or change. Families draw from and contribute to the network of relationships and resources in the community, including its ethnicity and pagan heritage, particularly during periods of family stress and crises. Families faced with crisis situations demanding changes in the familys functioning work to restore order, harmony, and balance even in the midst of change.In the Family Stress theorys metaparadigm, nursing is responsible in help oneselfing families in the surgical procedure of adaptation by promoting the family members health, help to recover from illness, help the family member to function within the specialised health limitation, support and develop familys strengths, assist in the employ of community resources available, facilitate the family in appraisal of the situation and help the family decide what is best for the situation (Beckett, 2000) .The Family Stress Theory in Family Nursing Stress can affect learned relationships in the family setting. Although stress is normal and natural in the family setting, severe stress can lead to serious family situations such as domestic violence, alcoholism, total abuse, and even child neglect. The outcome of the familys situation during the nerve-wracking event depends on how the family responds and thrives to the nerve-wracking situation.A trying event can be in the form of an acute or chronic illness in the family, sudden role changes,hardships in the family life cycle, separation, and death of a family member. The use of Family Stress Theory in Family Nursing assists the defends in exploring the family systems behavior and chemical reaction to situational stressors and transitional events. The Family Stress theory was useful in the familys head ability regarding the care of the child with extraordinary need (Crawford, 2002) .A child with special needs is a stress to both parents because time is needed to develop compete ncy in caring for such child in the family. The use of community and family resources should be offered and considered to adapt to the crisis. bingle literature alike applied the theory in remarriage in families and suggested that remarriage and appointment to step family living are conceptualized as life transition in the framework of the Family Stress Theory (Crosbie-Burnett, 1989, p. 323) .Identifying all the variables present in any stressful event and the familys capability of adapting to the stress employ all resources available will assist the go down on in developing the nursing process by making a thorough family internal and external environmental assessment, assist the family in creating a goal and planning for strategies to interrupt the issue, providing the family possible interventions in managing the stressor event, improving coping abilities, and enhancing the familys strength during the stressful event.The nurse is also responsible in following-up and evaluat ing the effectualness of the intervention to any continue the current forethought or change the coping strategy. Family sagacity In the use of qualitative and quantitative studies, families have different patterns to the response of stress. Assessing family resources, coping strategies, and processes provides the function for assisting families in adaptation and attainment of a high level of wellness (Friedman, Bowden & Jones, 2003, para 3).Families engage in different management and coping strategies when dealing with stressful events. The nurse will have to assess the healthiness or dysfunctional aspects of the family. During the assessment period, the nurse set specific goals that will help the family with coping mechanisms of stress. The foundation for achieving the goals will depend on family support, financial resources and coping strategies. Families remain strong and durable even during right aways economic crisis. Despite all the economic, social and political pressur es, approximately families can e considered to be functioning satisfactorily (Friedman, Bowden & Jones, 2003, para 4). The theoretical model family stress identifies two types of situations that will cause a family to enter into a crisis. Those situations are classified as developmental and situational events. Events that are identified as psychosocial growth of a family are noted as developmental events. Some examples are retirement, a child entering high enlighten or college, or adoption. The examples denote the normal life cycle touching the entire family unit.Unexpected events are considered situational events such as death, loss of job, or the loss of the home due to fire. The familys financial resources and coping mechanisms will help the family adapt and work through the crisis. The nurse can take the listed examples and help the family develop goals in becoming healthy and strong family again. Critique of the Family Stress Theory The use of the family stress theory by nurs es with move training is a key indicator for creating care paths that enhance the effectiveness of outcomes for positive family health.Family clinicians use the stress theory to facilitate a cooperative learning process between family members with special emphasis on the different family processes parenting, balancing work, dealing with childhood issues, and maintaining stability in home life. The stress theory is used as a helpful legal instrument for identifying sources of stress that lend a head start for developing strategic plans to assist with managing them.Further applicability of the stress theory offers a supportive resource for identifying coping mechanisms of individual family members and determining how effective their coping strategies are during stressful family situations. The theoretical framework for the stress theory also serves as a tool for explaining how families adjust and adapt as one system during stressful events (Friedman, Bowden, & Jones, 2003, p. 470). Information for identifying coping mechanisms for families of culture can be acquired by using a cultural genogram to gather information about their trengths and weaknesses. The clinician uses the information to commit it to the stress theory framework to assist the family with developing feasible ways of dealing with stressful events. Continued research efforts incorporating the use of the stress theory critical for developing innovative family care plans for helping families avoid and moderate stress levels. Further family- pore research can be generated to address the coping behaviors of culturally various families during stressful situations (Friedman et al. , 2003).The new wave of multi-types of families supports the need for intervention research that serves as evidenced-based practices to help not only culturally diverse families but also all families to deal with stress. Strengths The strengths identified in using the family stress theory are that the model is undemandi ng to understand and easy to translate into therapy and intervention. During the assessment period of explaining the model and how it relates to the situational crisis of the family, it is important that families understand the system. The nurse will explain adaptation, family adaptation, family coherence and family resilience.During the educational process, the concepts can be outlined and described in a manner the family can view the crisis and grade the event in the family units perspective. As the nurse translated the model into therapy sessions and intervention processes, the family will not have difficulty working in concert needed to heighten family growth. The nurse and family will work together to make believe goals. During the intervention session the family will engage with the stressors affecting the family. The family will work extensively to go by the unit to the whole family concept.Weaknesses Weaknesses identified are hold to the discussion of aspects in the fami ly dealing with stress and punctuation or interruptions. The family may be limited on providing pertinent information in the discussions. The nurse can help set goals based on the provided information. Shame and guiltiness play intricate roles in how much information is provided. The family will need to engage in the discussion and work sessions in order to return to the functional family unit. Punctuation or interruptions occur during the concourses with the nurse and family.Unforeseen activities causes disorganize scheduled meeting. A specific time should be allotted for the meeting to alleviate interruptions. The nurse and family can make stride if the sessions are uninterrupted. Family Nursing Research The trends of nursing care have evolved over the years from creation a patient centered care industry into an industry focused around family centered care. The focus of providing family centered care has resulted in an sudden need to develop concepts, assessment measures and clinical skills customized to the care creation provided.For this reason, family nursing research has detonated although much of the research is in its infancy stages. Much of the current literature on family nursing pertains to pediatric nursing and family, however the phone call for family nursing research for the adult world of nursing is emerging as well. One particular battlefield conducted by staff researchers at The University of compass north Carolina at Chapel Hill spotlight on how families care for a child with chronic illness and debilitating diseases. The byproduct of this research study is the FaMM (Family Management Measure).Although the FaMM was cultivate through the use of the Family Management Style abstract Framework (FMSF), the FaMM measures how a family manages during stressful situations, which is a direct correlation to the family stress theory. In addition to spotlighting, the purpose of the study is that it will further the development and testing of in terventions and the comprehensive assessment of families efforts to manage chronic conditions (Knafl et al. , 2007). Based on analyzing the investigations leading up to the FaMM, researchers had ne primary question and challenged themselves to discover a way to make the eight conceptual dimensions of the FMSF into a measureable assessment tool with a high piece of reliability and validity. Second, an evaluation tool (FaMM) and a hypothesis was developed to support the inquiry. The hypothesis converged to explain how data from the FaMM will contribute to clinicians and researchers ability to understand more fully family functioning in the context of childhood chronic conditions (Knafl et al. , 2007).Even though the research study appears to be qualitative in methodology with its categorical approach to establishing measurements it is overpoweringly quantitative. Each of the established measurement guidelines or categories becomes conclusive with a percentage score as a means to eva luate against ranges. The ranges help to determine whether the family has the ability to manage many of the stress factors associated with care of a inveterate ill child. The results of the research demonstrated a high validity as well as reliability.In particular, the reliability of the test ranged between 72% to 90% for mothers and 73% to 91% for fathers, both demonstrating above 50% reliability. The future of family nursing research should branch out to include all forms of family for example, children being raised by grandparents, homosexuals, foster parents and,other forms of guardianship. With the Family Stress Theory more research is needed to determine the long-lasting effects of stress on the family unit and ways to offset these effects.Furthermore, the research from family stress theory is useful to family nursing practice in that it gives nurses a starting point to initiate interventions, interposition and, other diagnoses. Conclusion Family stress theory provides nursin g staff with both intrinsic and extrinsic information to use in providing better services, care,and outreach to families. The concepts and assumptions identified in the theory arecurrently being researched for efficiency in providing the best application measures for family nursing practice. Despite the weakness identified in the theory, the strengths of the theory distant outweigh.In closing, the family stress theory can be used to guide nursing practice in acute care settings but also can provide in sight on primary taproom methods. References Beckett, C. (2000). Family theory as a framework for assessment. Unpublished manuscript, Northern azimuth University, Flagstaff, Arizona. Retrieved from http//jan. ucc. nau. edu/nur350-c/class/2_family/theory/lesson2-1-3. html Crawford, D. (2002). Keep the focus on the family. daybook of Child Health Care, 6, 133-146. doi 10. 1177/136749350200600201 Crosbie-Burnett, M. (1989, July).Application of Family Stress Theory to remarriage A Mode l for assessing and helping stepfamilies. Family Relations, 38, 323-331. Retrieved from http//www. jstor. org/pss/585060 Friedman, M. M. , Bowden, V. R. , & Jones, E. G. (2003). Family Nursing Research, Theory and Practice (5th Ed. ). Upper Saddle, NJ Prentice-Hall. Knafl, K. , Deatrick, J. , Gallo, A. , Dixon, J. , Grey, M. , Knafl, G. , & OMalley, J. (2007). Family management measure (FaMM). Retrieved December 5, 2009, from http//nursing. unc. edu/research/famm/ McDonald, L. (n. d. ). Hills theory of family stress and buffer factors Build the protective factor of social relationships and positive perception with multi-family groups_. Retrieved December 5, 2009, from http//cecp. air. org/vc/presentations/2selective/31mcdon/HILLS_FAMILY_STRESS_THEORY_AND_FAST. htm Smith, M. , & Liehr, P. (2008). Middle range theory for nursing (2nd ed. ). New York, NY Springer Publishing Company, LLC. Walker, L. O. , & Avant, K. C. (2005). Strategies for theory construction in nursing (4th ed. ). Up per Saddle River, NJ Pearson Prentice-Hall.