Clinical meaning
Family assessment in nursing applies structured theoretical frameworks to evaluate how family dynamics, structure, and function influence patient health outcomes and recovery. The family is the fundamental social unit that mediates between the individual and the healthcare system -- illness affects the entire family, and family functioning directly impacts patient outcomes. The CALGARY FAMILY ASSESSMENT MODEL (CFAM) is the most widely used family assessment framework in nursing and examines three major domains: (1) STRUCTURAL -- internal structure (family composition, gender, sexual orientation, rank order, subsystems such as parent-child or spousal, and boundaries between subsystems and with the external world) and external structure (extended family, larger systems such as work, school, and healthcare), (2) DEVELOPMENTAL -- the family's current life cycle stage (from couple formation through child-rearing through launching children through retirement), developmental tasks associated with each stage, and the impact of illness on developmental progress (chronic illness can arrest family development), and (3) FUNCTIONAL -- instrumental functioning (activities of daily living, care routines, household management) and expressive functioning (communication patterns, problem-solving strategies, roles, influence and power, beliefs and values, alliances...