The community health nurse work with families in different settings including clinics,

schools, support groups, and the family home. Every client has different needs. Therefore,
type of family nurse contact is also different in every situation. In selecting the type of
family nurse contact, certain criteria should be considered. Thus, effectivity, efficiency, and
appropriateness are major criteria for selecting the type of family nurse contact. Each type
of contact has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Seek Every understand

Types of Family Nurse Contact

A. Clinic Visit

A clinic visit is a form of family-nurse contact which process of checking the client’s health
condition happens in a private clinic, health center, barangay health station or in an ambulatory
clinic during a community outreach activity.

Advantages of Clinic Visit:

1. Usually indicates the willingness of the family to participate in the health care process.
2. Nurse has greater control over the environment.
3. Distractions for both the nurse and the client is lessened.

Disadvantage of Clinic Visit:

1. The family may feel less confident to discuss family health concerns

B. Home Visit

A professional family nurse contact that takes place in the family's residence to allow the health
worker to assess the home and family situations and provide the necessary nursing care and
health related activities such as treatment, health education, and referral. It aims to promote,
maintain, or restore the health of the family or its members. The nurse who makes the home visit
is rendering services on behalf of the health center.

Advantages of Home Visit (Famorca et. al.,2013):

1. It allows first-hand assessment of the home situation.

2. The nurse can seek out previously unidentified needs.
3. It gives the nurse an opportunity to adapt interventions according to family resources.
4. It promotes family participation and focuses on the family as a unit.
5. Teaching family members in the home is made easier by the familiar environment
and the recognition of the need to learn as they are faced by the actual home situation.
6. The personalized nature of home visit gives family a sense of confidence in
themselves and in the agency.

Disadvantages of Home Visit (Famorca et. al.,2013):

 1. The cost in terms of time and effort.
2. There are more distractions because the nurse is unable to control the environment.
3. Nurse’s safety.

According to Famorca et. al. (2013), there are three phases of home visit:

I. Pre-visit Phase
 The key part of the planning process prior to in-home phase.
 The nurse should contact the family and determine the willingness for a home
visit before setting an appointment.
 Utilize all possible sources (i.e., records, other personnel or agency, or
previous contacts with the family) to collected data and information about the
family
 Focus on identifies family needs, particularly needs organized by the family as
requiring urgent attention.
 Client and family should have active participation in planning for continuing
care.
 Formulate a plan that is practical and adaptable.
 It should have purpose:
- To have a more accurate assessment
- To educate the family about measures of health promotion, disease
prevention and control of health problems.
- To provide supplemental interventions for the sick, disabled or
dependent family member.
- To provide family with greater access to health resources in the
community.
II. In-home Phase
 Begins when the nurse asks permission to enter the house and ends when he or
she leaves the family's home.
 It consists of 3 parts: Initiation, Implementation, and Termination
1. Initiation
 It is important to knock or ring the doorbell and introduce yourself
before asking permission to enter the house.
 Acknowledges the family members with a greeting and introduce
yourself and the agency you represent.
 State the purpose of the visit.
 When the family directs you to sit, observe first the environment
for your own safety.
 Start initiating a conversation to establish rapport with the family.
2. Implementation
 This is where application of nursing process, assessment, provision
of direct nursing care and evaluation is done.
3. Termination
  Part where nurses we summarize the events with the family during
the home visit and set a subsequent home visit or other form of
family-nurse contact.
III. Post Visit Phase
 Involves documentation when the nurse has returned to the health
facility.

C. Group Conference
 Applicable for developing cooperation, leadership, self-reliance and or
community awareness among group members.
 Opportunity to share experiences and practical solutions to common health
concerns is a strength of this type of family-nurse contact.
 Provides an opportunity for initial contact between nurse & target families of the
community.
 Attendance usually requires motivation and availability of target family members.
 One example of this type of family-nurse contact is conference of mothers in the
neighborhood.

D. Telephone Calls
 Provides easy access between the nurse/health worker and the family.
 Encourages the family to communicate with the clinic or health center when they
feel the need for it cultivates the family's confidence in the health agency.
 Information transmitted through is limited.
 Accurate assessment of family conditions usually requires face to face contact.

E. Written Communications
 Used to give specific information to families, such as instructions given to parents
through school children.
 Nurse cannot be certain that the information will reach the intended recipient
since it is a one-way method and requires literacy and interest.

Categories of Intervention

A. Promotive
 Educates patients on how to boost wellness through simple practices they can
incorporate into daily life.
B. Preventive
 Aims to enhance health status and to uphold a condition of low risk of diseases,
disorders or injuries – in other words, to prevent their occurrence.
C. Curative
 Curative care is the most frequent reason why people initially contact the health
system.
 Aims to treat the present disease that a patient has.
D. Rehabilitative
  Aims to maintain the best quality of life and to reduce suffering and limit
deterioration.

References

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Classification of Health Care Functions. (n.d.). OECD iLibrary. Retrieved September 16,
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Famorca, Z. U., Nies, M. A., & McEwen, M. (2013). Nursing care of the community: A
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Home visit. (2021, March 6). nurseinfo. Retrieved September 16, 2021, from
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Vera, M. (2013, December 18). Nursing home visit. Nurseslabs. Retrieved September
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https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1I5g87RDEOhGeN9w9gYo_U53QJpv5V-lj

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f-dzhKTP8GExGhnnNdMv75Lmd8AXai0z/view