Family Theories in Advanced Nursing Practice Research Paper

Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast two family theories that may be adopted for use in clinical practice by the advanced practice nurse. In this paper, Calgary Family Assessment and Intervention Models (CFAM/CFIM), as well as the Family Health System Model (FHS), will be discussed. Within this paper, the strengths and weaknesses of each model, as well as the choice rationale, will be presented and validated. Additionally, a case study will be developed to apply one of the theories to determine what concepts are applicable and what do not fit the case particularities. Finally, the paper will address the challenges of integrating the theory into clinical practice and the likelihood of adopting one into clinical practice.

Identification and Description of Theories

Overall, the emergence of family theories was consistent with the requirement of nursing to address the needs of families as social units by which individuals’ physical and mental well-being is affected. Two models that will be at the center of this paper’s discussion include CFAM/CFIM, and FHS are well-developed, comprehensive, integrative, and highly applicable to different contexts. The choice of these two theories was validated by the scope of their application for a variety of family health cases, their extensive presence in the academic literature, and the relevance of these models’ concepts to clinical practice at multiple levels. While the Calgary models are often addressed and used separately (different concepts for assessment and intervention), they ultimately constitute a unified framework, which is why both CFAM and CFIM are integrated into one theory.

The first theory to be described is CFAM/CFIM, which has been introduced to the clinical field in recent decades. Indeed, CFAM/CFIM was created in 1984 by Lorraine Wright, RN, Ph.D., and Maureen Leahey, RN Ph.D. and are considered one of the four leading assessment models in the world (Leahey & Wright, 2016). The multifaceted set of concepts integrated into the models allows for a competent, structured, and well-informed assessment and intervention implementation procedure to be executed with an opportunity of adjusting practices according to case specifications. According to Zimansky et al. (2020), “the CFAM enables nurses to comprehensively assess current family strengths, resources, problems, and illness suffering through targeted questions that assess family structure, development, and function” (p. 346). The CFAM consists of three major areas, which include: structural, developmental, and functional.

At the structural level, family is addressed from the perspective of its formation and the networks between the members. Structural evaluation implies establishing how many family members there are, what their occupations are, and how they perform within a bigger context. Therefore, the structural category in the model is approached within such subcategories as internal and external structure and context (Leahey & Wright, 2016). At the developmental level, the model allows for evaluating the lifecycle of the family and the level of its development as a whole, and if each member is separately (Souza et al., 2017). Finally, at the level of functional evaluation, the model provides the basis for obtaining and compiling the information about family functioning and the interaction between family members (Leahey & Wright, 2016). The genogram and ecomap are commonly utilized when assessing families according to the three areas within CFAM (Zimansky et al., 2020). Thus, CFAM is an essential family theory that constitutes the basis of family nursing interventions since it helps to collect and arrange the most pivotal information and group the findings logically.

The second component of CFAM/CFIM also has a multifaceted and integrative nature and is commonly used after CFAM. Indeed, CFIM “provides an organizing framework for the nurse-family relationship and for a therapeutic conversation offered by nurses using specific family nursing interventions (e.g., interventive questions, commendations) that target the systems level that offers the greatest opportunities for family health and healing (Zimansky et al., 2020, p. 346). Essentially, this model includes the guidelines and system of different types of questions within three domains of family functioning that might be used for interviewing the family members at the stage of intervention suggestion and validation. In particular, the three domains of family functioning are cognitive, affective, and behavioral (Wright & Leahey, 1994). Using these dimensions in a combination or separately, a nurse might identify and address a problem in the family for its further solving with the help of appropriate interventions. Indeed, according to Wright and Leahey (1994), “interventions can be targeted to promo