Family nursing assessment: meeting the challenge of health promotion

Family nursing assessment has traditionally followed an illness-care model. This paper proposes a re-evaluation of traditional family assessment and suggests an approach which is fundamentally based in health promotion. The paper includes a discussion of varying perspectives of health and health care, the health promotion perspective adopted by the World Health Organization, and the relevance of these perspectives for family nursing practice. Central elements of health promotion are outlined and serve as the guiding principles for family nursing assessment. Two inherent aspects of health-promoting family nursing practice are proposed and described. These include an emphasis on a human caring nursing ontology, and a framework for guiding family nursing assessment. This health-promoting assessment framework contains four essential components: (a) listening to the family; (b) participatory dialogue; (c) recognizing patterns; and (d) envisaging action and positive change. These components are described, together with the strategic elements inherent in each. Based on this health-promoting family nursing assessment, implications for nursing practice are discussed, and recommendations are made for research into this assessment framework.