Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns Assessment

Modified: 10th Dec 2020
Wordcount: 5560 words

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Overall Introduction:

I am presenting here my overall health assessment by using the Gordon’s functional health patterns. Then, my stress is presented as focused assessment. This part of assessment assist me in knowing the level of stress while the internet source helps me in gaining more knowledge about causes , effects of stress in normal health status and the methods to reduce the stress or its management. Finally my essay on the health promotion is presented last.

Part 1: Self Health Assessment and plan

Functional Health Pattern (Gordon)

Biographical Data

Name: Lalita Bhandari

Address: 3/5 Danica Ct., Kearneys Spring

Date of Birth: 13th Feb. 1992

Place: Nepal

Age: 22 years

Gender: Female

Occupation: Student

Marital status: Single

Qualification: Bachelor in nursing (ongoing)

Contact number: 0404473722

Height: 162 cm.

Weight: 60 kg.

  • Health perception and management pattern:
  • Past health history: No history of any chronic illness
  • Present condition: Stress due to study workload and homesickness

-Immunized all the vaccines which include tuberculosis, all three doses of Diphtheria, Pertusis and Tetanus, polio, measles, BCG, hepatitis and Rubella.

-No habit of alcohol consumption, smoking and chewing of tobacco and no use of other injectable drugs.

  • Nutritional-metabolic pattern:
  • Good appetite
  • Food intake: 2-3 times a day and many snacks
  • No any food allergies
  • Fluid intake: 3-4 liters of water per day
  • Have no difficulties with eating and swallowing
  • Vitals (at the time of doing assignment)
  • Temperature: 36.8 deg. centigrade
  • Pulse: 74/min.
  • Respiration: 78/min
  • Blood Pressure: 110/60 mm of Hg.
  • Height: 162 cm.
  • Weight: 60 kg.

But sometimes get disturbed with stress.

  • Elimination pattern
  • Bowel: regular bowel at least once daily
  • Bladder: normal frequency of menstruation and no problem associated with bladder or urination
  • Activity-Exercise pattern
  • No planned routine for regular exercise regime
  • Depends upon mood and only on leisure time but rare
  • Sleep and rest pattern
  • Normally no problem of insomnia
  • Have 5-6 hours of sleeping pattern
  • Never use of any sleeping aids and sedatives to rest

But sometimes, when I get stress, I suffer from insomnia

  • Cognitive-Perceptual patterns
  • Good sensory and auditory adequacy
  • No difficulties in learning
  • Good memory
  • Oriented
  • Self-Perception and self concept patterns
  • I am kind, helpful and soft-hearted
  • Show positive attitudes towards others
  • Respect others feelings

But sometimes I feel losing hope when nobody cares.

  • Roles and relationship pattern
  • Family life: Recently I live with my friends as a family. I have responsibility towards my parents as a daughter and sister. I can cope with the difficulties that arise among family members and have good bond among all family members.
  • Student life: Being a student, I have responsibility towards my studies. As with the case with most of international students I need to cope with various level of difficulties like stress, anxiety and workload.
  • Coping-Stress tolerance pattern
  • New environment, new face, new rules, new study patterns make me stress. always listen to songs, watch pictures/photos of my cell and also talk to my close friend and family. If the stress is too severe and cannot be controlled, I cry silently and let the stress burst out with tears and feel like relaxed then after.
  • Values-Beliefs pattern
  • Cultural and religious beliefs
  • Goal set to be a qualified and dedicated Registered Nurse
  • Punctual, obedient and hardworking
  • Never give up and learn from every mistake and move forward

Part B: Focused Assessment

While performing self health assessment, I found some problems in my behavior, which is mainly caused by stress due to new environment, new place, new rules and regulation. Study and distance between me and my family are the other factors that lead to stress. In this focused assessment, I am focusing in assessing level of stress.

I browse internet to gain more knowledge on my stress level. I assessed my stress level using “life change index scale/ The Stress Test”, written by Thomas H. Holmes and Richard H. Rahel. This stress test has three different rows including event, impact score and my score. As event adds up, there occurs increase in score. The higher the score, the chance of becoming ill will also be higher and also the change of returning back to normal health will decrease.

LIFE CHANGE INDEX SCALE : THE STRESS TEST

Event

Impact Score

My Score

Death of spouse

100

 

Divorce

73

 

Marital Separation

65

 

Jail Term

63

 

Death of close family member

63

 

Personal injury or illness

53

 

Marriage

50

 

Fired at work

47

 

Marital reconciliation

45

 

Retirement

45

 

Change in health of family member

44

 

Pregnancy

40

 

Sex difficulties

39

 

Gain of a new family member

39

 

Business readjustment

39

 

Change in financial state

38

38

Death of a close friend

37

 

Change to a different line of work

36

 

Change in number of arguments with spouse

35

 

Mortgage over $20,000

31

 

Foreclosure of mortgage or loan

30

 

Change in responsibilities at work

29

 

Son or daughter leaving home

29

 

Trouble with in laws

29

 

Outstanding personal achievement

28

 

Spouse begins or stop work

26

 

Begin or end school

26

26

Change in living conditions

25

 

Revisions of personal habits

24

 

Trouble with boss

23

 

Change in work hours or conditions

20

20

Change in residence

20

 

Change in schools

20

 

Change in recreations

19

 

Change in church activities

19

 

Change in social activities

19

 

Mortgage or loan less than $20,000

17

 

Change in sleeping habits

16

16

Change in number of family get-togethers

15

 

Change in eating habits

15

 

Vacation

13

 

Christmas approaching

12

 

Minor violation of the law

11

 

Total

 

100

Life change units

Likelihood Of Illness In Near Future

300+

about 80 percent

150-299

about 50 percent

less than 150

about 30 percent

According to the score interpretation presented above in the table, my level of score is 100 which is less than 150 so I have less risk of illness in my near future. In this way Homes and Rahes stress life change index scale helps me to assess my level of stress and help me in reducing the stress and promote my health.

References

Holmes, T. H., & Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of psychosomatic research, 11(2), 213-218.

Retrieved from http://www.dartmouth.edu/~eap/library/lifechangestresstest.pdf

Part 3 Internet Sources

While doing my individual self assessment, i determine that stress is the main cause for detoriating my healthy living and daily activities. For promoting my own health, I have selected two internet sources to reduce my stress. As per the source, i came to know that stress is determined as the physical reaction to several events of our life in our daily way of living. Both the sources provide brief information about the stress, causes, management and technique to relief or cope with the stress. According to the helpguide.org, “stress is a normal physical response to events that make you feel threaened or upset balanc e in some ways”. Also with the help of the source i came to know that stress have both merits and demerits .These both explained about the stress and mainly focused on various strategies for stress management which include 4As-Avoid unnecessary stress , Alter the situation, Adapt the streesor and Accept the things cannot be changed. Similarly the article prepared by University of South Australia also has been presented with more information about the management of stress. This source focuses mainly in different strategies of managing stress according to our body, mind, thinking and behaviour.

As both the sources have the name of the author with the date and name of publication with more information , i found these are the reliable and trustworthy for me. I found both the sources important and informative in handling with the stress.

References :

  1. Managing stress Monday (2013). Retrieved April 22, 2013, from

http://w3.unisa.edu.au/counsellingservices/wellbeing/stress.asp

  1. Smith, M., Segal, R., Segal, J. (2013). Stress Symptoms, signs and causes. Retrieved

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_signs.htm

Part 4. Health Promotion Essay

Health is considered to be the precious wealth of an individual. It is an important aspect of our life. According to the definition provided by World Health Organization, “Health promotion is the process of enabling people either individually or in group like community to increase control over, and to improve their health” as cited by Selekman,( 2006).Health is affected by various factors so that to promote the health a teamwork is required between health personal, community and other different sectors. Being a health person, Nurses play vital role for accessing the health of patients, identify their health needs and encourage them to promote their health in an effective way. This essay explains about the problems in student nurses health and the programs to promote their health.

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Nurses are the key persons to promote the health. They are well experienced either with the knowledge they gain or exposing with the patient of different health condition. According to Dempsey(2009), “ Health promotion model is important for an individual to promote their health”. . According to Mary,Sally and Kathleen (2011) , the student nurse are known as the main person to identify health issues where low school performance and change in health status are found more common ,as cited by American Academy of Pediatrics Council on School Health (2008). This explains that the students are found to be more stressed which causes great changes in academic achievement and also their health status will detoriate. The student nurse may face problem like difficulty in identifying the problem in their clinical placement , sometimes hard even to understand the medical term. As per Fethiye and Fatos(2009),there are numerous factors that causes negative influence on decision making and nursing practices such as individual variables such as personal character traits and value , lack of knowledge and sensitivity about ethics and patients rights ,limited autonomy and unsatisfactory working .

There are different approaches to health promotion and different health promotion model are in use. Health promotion model include characteristics models to promote environment where healthy decisions can be made about attaining high standard lifestyles reducing. According to Jennifer , fran and janat (2013) explain that the health-promoting behaviors of nursing students might be the key factor for their academic success and also facilitate them for post graduate practices . the health promotion behavior includes change in lifestyle , adjustment with new environment of study as well as hospital and development o, lifestyle, beliefs and thoughts, motivation health and promoting behavior. Practicing nurse can use these health f strength to cope with various people. According to Chambers and Thompson(2009), “empowerment is the other main focus on health promotion and participate” The student nurses should be encouraged to promote their health, change their behavior and also motivate them in changing their lifestyle and behavior and also reduce stress by avoiding , adapting the stressor and accepting the changes .

At conclusion, there are many factors that cause stress in the student life of the nurses which causes problem in their health. There are many reasons to promote health. Encouragement helps nursing student to promote their health by brining change in their lifestyle

Overall conclusion

I have done my own self assessment with stress as a focused assessment. I found stress as a main factor that chauses change in my normal health status. Finally the essay on health promotion is presented at list of references the end of the assignment.

List of References :

  1. Baisch, M. J., Lundeen, S. P., & Murphy, M. (2011). Evidence-Based Research on the Value of School Nurses in an Urban School System. Journal Of School Health, 81(2), 74-80. doi:10.1111/j.1746-1561.2010.00563.x

Retrived from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.usq.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=95fefa95-373a-4bb3-a0d3-09b4b9baaf42%40sessionmgr4005&vid=0&hid=4212

  1. Bektas, M., & Ozturk, C. (2008). Effect of health promotion education on presence of positive health behaviors, level of anxiety and self-concept: Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 36(5), 681-690. doi:10.2224/sbp.2008.36.5.681

RETIREVED FROM http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.usq.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=53bd6502-3b56-4fb0-9ad8-dfe19e80ee51%40sessionmgr4005&vid=0&hid=4212

  1. Bryer, J., Cherkis, F., & Raman, J. (2013). Health-Promotion Behaviors of Undergraduate Nursing Students: A Survey Analysis. Nursing Education Perspectives, 34(6), 410-415. doi:10.5480/11-614 RERIEVED FROM http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.usq.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=394eddc7-bbd1-4e40-9b94-3546e235556b%40sessionmgr4004&vid=1&hid=4212
  1. Dempsey,J., French ,J., Hillege,S., &Wilson,V.(2009) . Fundamental of Nursing &midwifery: A person centered approach to care,(5th ed). Lippincott Williams &wilkins, broadway, NWS
  1. Erdil, F., & Korkmaz, F. (2009). ETHICAL PROBLEMS OBSERVED BY STUDENT NURSES. Nursing Ethics, 16(5), 589-598
  2. Holmes, T. H., & Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of psychosomatic research, 11(2), 213-218.

Retrieved from http://www.dartmouth.edu/~eap/library/lifechangestresstest.pdf

  1. Managing stress Monday (2013). Retrieved April 22, 2013, from

http://w3.unisa.edu.au/counsellingservices/wellbeing/stress.asp

  1. Smith, M., Segal, R., Segal, J. (2013). Stress Symptoms, signs and causes. Retrieved

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_signs.htm

NUR1200: Concepts in Patient Care

Assignment:Portfolio of Health assessment / Health promotion marks: 20 (Weight 20%)

Part One

0 – .5

1- 2

2.5 – 3

 

Self-Health Assessment

Absent or minimal health data

No framework

Surface approach only

Absent or minimal summary or analysis

Material is presented or written poorly

Data is logically presented but is limited in scope

Utilises and references a framework

Some areas of assessment could be expanded more

Comprehensive assessment includes bio/ psycho/ social parameters

Interprets health status

Assesses and Analyses data

/3

Part Two

0 – .5

1-1.5

2

 

Focussed assessment

Focussed Health issue does not relate to student’s health assessment in Part 1

No resource(s) used

Minimalanalysis/interpretation

Material is presented or written poorly

Focus is limited in depth

Resource used for assessment

Lacks clarity in focus

Lacks clarity in writing

Comprehensive

Interprets health status

Utilizes and references resource(s)

Analyses data

Organized presentation

/2

Part three:

0

.5

1

 

Health resource

Internet Resources (two)

Source not cited

Does not state the health topic being addressed

No analysis

No comment regarding reliability

Includes in-text or other means of citing internet sites

Surface critique only

Comments on reliability but could have more depth

Analysis/critique regarding usefulness of sources

Insightful comment(s) regarding reliability/validity of sources

/1

Part four: Essay section

 

Demonstrates knowledge related to Health promotion

0

1

2-3

4

 

Paper is disjointed,

Paper is not related to health promotion

Discussion is a description of published work only – minimal explanation of Health Promotion

Some health promotion or strategies are mentioned (this will vary depending on theme chosen)

Demonstrates a clear articulation of health promotion within chosen topic

/4

Use of theme

0

.5-1

1.5

2

 

Does not establish a context for the issue

Material strays into tangents

States theme well but points are not supportive of this

Some points do not relate to theme

States theme but points are not consistently convincing in support of the theme.

Utilises theme well – all points support this

Theme is clear

/2

Demonstrates ability to collate knowledge

0

.5-1

1.5

2

 

Material is:

  • not cohesive,
  • does not answer theme
  • is irrelevant to the assigned topic

Assignment is a listing of quotes or paraphrased material without synthesis of material for the reader

Student is able to synthesize knowledge from several sources to substantiate a logical representation of the theme.

Student is able to consistently and effectively synthesise knowledge and Strategy (ies) or factors presented as health promotion which are supported as evidence for practice from the literature.

/2

Use of literature

0

0

.5

1

 

Literature is inappropriate, limited or out of date

Content is not well supported from the literature

Uses some literature but not integrated, relevant or purposeful.

Utilizes at least four sources from literature or texts which are relevant, academic and appropriate

/1

Written expression

Assignment reads as unified whole

Intro/

Conclusion

0

.5-1

1.5

2

 

Lists material – does not collate

Reader must re-read sections to understand content.

Paragraphs move into tangents

Absent introduction – does not describe the material to follow

Inappropriate or absent concluding remarks

Written expression lacks consistency.

Description only –analysis could be developed more

Lists material – does not collate

Poor introduction – does not set paper up or establish a context

Poorly written conclusion

Written expression lacks consistency and does not demonstrate a high academic standard.

Intro present but not effective in leading into paper

Conclusion present but ineffective/ introduces new material

High standard of written expression.

Language is appropriate and of a high academic standard.

Well-written and well-structured paragraphs

Assignment reads as a unified whole

Introduces essay section, outlines points to follow

Concludes essay (briefly)

/2

Technicalities of writing (grammar/

spelling)

0

.5

1

 

Uses dot points.

Changes tenses.

Changes ‘person’ (switches from he/she to ‘you’).

Uses first person – (okay in parts 1-3 but not Part 4)

Incomplete sentences Misspelled words

Run on sentences

Inappropriate abbreviations

Uses colloquial language

Poor paragraph structure

Paragraphs move into tangential material

Some inconsistencies in grammar and spelling

No breaches of grammar or spelling.

Appropriate use of:

  • Punctuation
  • tenses
  • person (‘I’, ‘you’ ‘he/she’)

/1

Referencing

In-text

0

.5

1

 

Incorrect acknowledgement of cited material.

Inappropriate paraphrasing from published literature’

Incorrect secondary citation;

Incorrect use of ‘et.al.’

Format not consistent with APA

Assignment utilizes material from sources without acknowledging source.

Some inconsistencies with style of in-text referencing (those in the body of the paper)

Inconsistencies with reference list

Moderate issues identified with referencing

Consistently correct in-text referencing as per USQ guidelines.

Correct use of APA Referencing.

Correct expression of secondary citations.

Assignment acknowledges source of all referenced materials.

/1

Reference list

0

.5

1

 

Reference List is not in alphabetical order.

Does not maintain APA style

Uses references that are not in body of paper

Includes references that are not in body of paper

Punctuation errors in reference list

Electronically accessed journals are not written correctly

Occasional Punctuation errors in reference list

References are consistently written using APA and the correct format for the type of source

/1

 

Negative marking:

Significantly Over/under word count (≥ 10%) (minus 1 mark)

Did not submit marking guide on EASE (minus 1 mark)

Neg:

 

MARKS LOST FOR LATE PENALTY (IF RELEVANT – 5 % per business day)

   

FINAL MARK ( MARKS AWARDED LESS MARKS LOST)

   

Marker:

   
                     

1

 

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Specific health assessment refers to an assessment of a specific problem and it may be the initial assessment or an ongoing assessment. A specific assessment is problem oriented, it focuses on a specific problem and not a general health.

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