[Family oriented nursing care]

Nursing has experienced an important methodological development, in which it gives priority to the individual, although at a socioeconomic level a marked interest is seen in the health care of the family unit and the NANDA (North American Nursing Diagnosis Association), NIC (Nursing Interventions Classification) and NOC (Nursing Outcomes Classification) nursing guidelines, using diagnoses, criteria of results and interventions orientated towards this aim. We consider to the family as an opened system consisted of human elements, with a common history, which they form a functional unit been ruled by own procedure. In this paper we look at those aspects that must be taken into account in nursing assessment of families from a systemic perspective, including some tools for data collection and analysis of information. In addition, we identify specific areas of intervention. We believe that the family must be studied from a nursing care point of view with its own characteristics as opposed to those possessed individually by each of its members. We also believe that, when assessment is centred on the Henderson unaided activities study or the Gordon functional health patterns, they are not useful in assessing the family unit. This work offers an assessment method centred on the family unit, which helps to identify the nursing diagnoses applicable to it. Our proposal, which has been successfully used by nursing students over the last few years, hopes to contribute to quality clinical practice with a tool orientated towards the family.