A Genogram is powerful to help understand a family history. Collecting a family history can become complex a genogram contributes to simplifying this part of an initial assessment. Genogram helps health care providers obtain data that can be elaborated on more to understand family dynamics fully. The Genogram a visual tool of an individual family medical history, the Genogram traces a family history back to three generations (Estes, 2014)
Healthcare professional in the clinical practice use genogram to obtain detailed information about a patient's health and history. For example, a patient wants to know how he/she inherited a particular illness for example Sickle Cell disease a genogram can be useful. Sickle cell disease a genetic disease and its origins traced back to the family to father/mother or even grandmother or grandfather.
To construct a genogram, a patient must have full knowledge of their family history. Health information is written down for illustration on paper, interpreted by the healthcare provider to the patient who must be competent with this tool (Genogram, n.d).
This tool can be helpful in the clinical practice can be simplified by noting a patient health information, and the patient reports that he/she has a family history of diabetes or hypertension , but he does not have it, this patient potential can be decreased with educating the patient of health promotion practices such as recommending diet changes, encouraging the patient to exercise regularly, maintain weight requirement, especially for those individuals who have a higher potential for hypertension and this is where the genogram becomes a handy tool. For patients who have a family history of sickle cell disease, this tool can be useful for encouraging parents to seek genetic counseling before starting a family (Estes, 2014).
Reference
•Estes, Mary Ellen Z. (2014). Health Assessment and Physical Examination, (5th ed). [Vital Source Bookshelf Online]. Retrieved fromhttps://bookshelf.vitalsource.com
•Genograms. Constructing and Interpreting Interaction Patterns. (n.d.). Retrieved August 2, 2016 fromhttps://www.genograms.org/about.html.
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For your replies, find examples of how genograms are being utilized in the clinical setting. This would be a great discussion thread to begin.
For example, by doing a 'genogram' search in MEDLINE (one of Rasmussen's online databases) I found a bunch of interesting articles like: forensicgenograms, spiritual genograms, cultural genograms and family therapy!
To count as 1 official reply post, as always, follow the grading rubric for grading criteria.
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A genogram is an excellent way to learn about the patient and their family health history. Nurses must be comfortable with collecting information on a two or three-generation family health history and recording health data that can be used to inform the nursing care plan and improve patient health and outcomes. Different diseases tend to run in families, which is essential information to include as part of a comprehensive health assessment.
Review and reflect on the purpose of the genogram for eliciting information for the family health history. How would you integrate a genogram into your comprehensive health assessment?