How do you define family nursing?
The mission of the International Family Nursing Association (IFNA) is “to foster the individual and collective development of nurses involved in the promotion of health care to families by providing a unique international forum of shared responsibility for the advance of family nursing. IFNA offers opportunities for leadership, socialization, and collegial exchange related to all aspects of family nursing.”
According to this mission statement, family nursing involves the promotion of health care to families. What are the boundaries of family nursing, and how does one know if one is engaged in family nursing? Does the effective promotion of health care to families require specific educational preparation or training? Should this content be incorporated across nursing program curricula, and/or does the practice of family nursing require coursework specifically in family health nursing? How could systems of health care in your region or nation be improved to foster family nursing?
Is family nursing evolving over time?
Please share your thoughts…
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I’m Naohiro Hohashi in Japan.
In 1992 the University of Tokyo and Chiba University set up new family health care nursing programs, thus beginning the education of family health care nursing in Japan. At that time, I was specializing in family health care nursing, and engaged in development of family health care nursing theory/model, translational research and other activities aimed toward the construction of family health care nursing practice.
I believe the definition of family health care nursing is an eternal theme. And as the concept of family may differ according to nation and region, this defination may vary slightly.
I would define family health care nursing as, “the practical science of preventative and remedial support to the family in order to help the family system unit independently and autonomously maintain and improve its family functions.” I believe the key word for family health care nursing is “family functioning.” On the other hand, the key word for nursing towards individuals, I believe, is “individuals’s well-being.”
I am currently engaged in the teaching of specialists of Japan-oriented family health care nursing at a graduate school. Our program is composed of 38 units that include lectures, exercises and practice. As part of the program, I am engaged in training to realize nursing practice based on the “Concentric Spehere Family Environment Model” (CSFEM), which I developed for the family health care nursing theory/model.
Thank you for your comments, Naohiro. Your model is a useful way to conceptualize the family and its response to changes in health. I’m adding a link here to your website, which is an excellent example of how family nurses can share their work with a global audience. Thank you for also sharing information about your model on the practice resources page on the IFNA website.
http://www.familynursing.org/csfem/