This article provides a student’s sample essay on Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns Assessment

Disclaimer: This is a sample essay written by a student and not one of our professional nursing writers. It is meant to be used as just an example to other students.

Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns Assessment

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)

Age: 22 years

Gender: Female

Occupation: Student

Marital status: Single

Qualification: Bachelor in nursing (ongoing)

• 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.

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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

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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 :

Managing stress Monday (2013). Retrieved April 22, 2013, from
http://w3.unisa.edu.au/counsellingservices/wellbeing/stress.asp

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.

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 .

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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

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
   Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.usq.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=95fefa95-373a-4bb3-a0d3-09b4b9baaf42%40sessionmgr4005&vid=0&hid=4212
2. 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
   Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.usq.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=53bd6502-3b56-4fb0-9ad8-dfe19e80ee51%40sessionmgr4005&vid=0&hid=4212
3. 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
   Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.usq.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=394eddc7-bbd1-4e40-9b94-3546e235556b%40sessionmgr4004&vid=1&hid=4212
4. 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
5. Erdil, F., & Korkmaz, F. (2009). ETHICAL PROBLEMS OBSERVED BY STUDENT NURSES. Nursing Ethics, 16(5), 589-598
6. 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
7. Managing stress Monday (2013). Retrieved April 22, 2013,
   Retrieved from http://w3.unisa.edu.au/counsellingservices/wellbeing/stress.asp
8. Smith, M., Segal, R., Segal, J. (2013). Stress Symptoms, signs and causes.
   Retrieved from http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_signs.ht

As you continue, thestudycorp.com has the top and most qualified writers to help with any of your assignments. All you need to do is place an order with us. (Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns Assessment)

Related FAQs

1. What is Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns assessment?

Gordon’s functional health patterns is a method devised by Marjory Gordon to be used by nurses in the nursing process to provide a more comprehensive nursing assessment of the patient.

2. What are the 11 functional health patterns?

List of Functional Health Patterns

• Health Perception – Health Management Pattern.
• Nutritional – Metabolic Pattern.
• Elimination Pattern.
• Activity – Exercise Pattern.
• Cognitive – Perceptual Pattern.
• Sleep – Rest Pattern.
• Self-perception – Self-concept Pattern.
• Role – Relationship Pattern.

3. What are the five areas of focus in Gordon’s functional health patterns?

Identify areas of strength, limitation, alteration, and response to therapies. Gordon identified which 5 areas of focus? Role relationship, family values, and societal mores.

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