A student’s experience of family nursing

Emily Carr – Adult Nursing Student, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK   My experience of family nursing The word ‘family’ evokes, for many, the traditional sense of a nuclear family: wife, husband and children, but the modern world demands an ever developing need to move away from this restricted view. This is especially pertinent within the … Read more A student’s experience of family nursing

Racism influences family health

IFNA President, Professor Sonja J. Meiers PhD RN PHN  The International Family Nursing Association (IFNA) embraces a compassionate family focus on health, social justice, human dignity, and respect for all. The vision of IFNA is to transform health for families worldwide. The senseless and tragic instance of 46-year old African American Mr. George Floyd’s death … Read more Racism influences family health

New website launched to support family-focussed healthcare in UK and Ireland

New website launched to support family-focussed healthcare in UK and Ireland COVID-19 has seen more families caring for loved ones with acute illnesses and now Sheffield Hallam University has co-designed a new website dedicated to supporting the role of family-focussed healthcare in the UK and Ireland. Family nursing, midwifery and community care focuses on promoting … Read more New website launched to support family-focussed healthcare in UK and Ireland

Family nursing – why and what is it?

Professor Alison Metcalfe PhD BSc RN PG Cert

For decades, nursing in all specialties in the UK has focused on improving and developing patient-centred or client-centred care. Highly laudable and imperative to providing care that recognises the patient / client as an individual, with their own values, beliefs, knowledge and experiences. However, some nurses are beginning to recognise that patient-centred care is only the tip of the iceberg in assisting patients / clients to recovery, healing or learning to live with long-term conditions or adjust to life changing events such as childbirth, death and bereavement. Patients or clients’ management of their health, illness and wellbeing is dependent on their most ‘significant others’, their families and friends or ‘relational care’.

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The 15th International Family Nursing Conference is going virtual

The IFNA Board of Directors, reposted from the IFNA website, published in July 2020

After thoughtful consideration of the continued influences of COVID-19 on persons, families, and institutions, the International Family Nursing Association Board of Directors has made the difficult decision to conduct the 15th International Family Nursing Conference (IFNC15) “Family Nursing Across the Life Course” virtually to keep all members safe and healthy.

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The vital importance of family nursing and midwifery in the UK and Ireland

Professor Veronica Swallow, Professor Alison Metcalfe and Professor Veronica Lambert, Chapter Co-leads, reposted from the Evidence-Based Nursing blog, published in March 2020

Nurses and midwives (nurses) play a major role in supporting people across the life-course. Within multi-disciplinary teams nurses support many patients/clients remotely, but patients/clients rely predominantly on family members for home-based support with self-management. Family nursing provides nursing care to the whole family and to individual family members with attention to relationships among members. When one person in a family has health support needs this can bring family role-changes that cause stress to the family unit, while individual family members may struggle to adapt to the altered circumstances.

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National Roundtable Debate

Professor Veronica Swallow PhD MMedSci BSc (Hons) RGN RSCN

In January 2020, the UK and Ireland IFNA Chapter hosted a National Roundtable Debate at Sheffield Hallam University, UK, to discuss the question: Should nurses, midwives and health visitors use more family focused interventions to actively promote care of patients’ and clients’ families? Before the event, Professor Alison Metcalfe shared a blog to pave the way for the debate. The agenda for the event can be viewed here.

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