Family Nursing Therapeutic Conversations: Family Reorganization Processes After Diagnosis

Abstract

Objective To explore and explain the readjustment processes of families living with a family member suffering from heart failure 1 year after having attended a heart failure clinic where family nursing therapeutic conversations were conducted. Background Living with heart failure is challenging for both the patient and the family due to role shifts and drastic lifestyle changes. Long‐term support for the entire family is needed from health care professionals. Evidence for suitable family interventions is scarce. Method Joint interviews with 15 families in which a member suffered from heart failure were conducted. Theoretical sampling guided the inclusion of families, and a grounded theory approach was used to analyze data. Results The core category to emerge was reorganizing family life, which included the process of balancing competing needs on an individual level and as a family. The needs in question involved maintaining personal integrity and maintaining family bonds in the context of health care and daily living. Conclusions The process of reorganizing family life seemed to stabilize during the first year. Exploring family illness narratives and family perception of needs and goals guided by health care professionals seem to support families' well‐being and adjustment processes. Implications Knowledge from this study could improve collaboration between families and health care professionals and support the communication within families living with heart failure.

Living with heart failure: perspectives of ethnic minority families

“…6 7 Families often are engaged in patient care in the treatment process of HF, mostly by providing different supporting roles, such as accompanying the patient to healthcare appointments, support for daily tasks, giving emotional support and providing care. 8 The family perspective of the disease plays an important role in patients' self-care patterns, adjustment to the disease and quality of life. 8 9 Therefore, it is essential to understand family experiences of living with HF, not least in ethnic minority groups.…”

Factors associated with family functioning in patients with heart failure and their family members: An international cross‐sectional study

“…Therefore, they strive to understand the situation and try to adjust and balance life by maintaining personal integrity and family bonds (Voltelen et al, 2018). This might have affected women more than men and attributed to the lower family functioning in female patients in NYHA class I in our study (Schou et al, 2008).…”

Healthcare practices and interventions in Europe towards families of older patients with cardiovascular disease: A scoping review

“…Two studies focused on family functioning. Therapeutic conversations with patients with HF and their family members showed a potentially positive impact on communication within the family [52] and helped restructure family life in the year following a HF diagnosis [61].…”

“…The practices and interventions in three studies were designed to report reactions and outcomes about usual care [41][42][43]. Fourteen studies tested new interventions, practices or services in comparison with usual care [44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62]. The interventions and practices targeted either patients alone, family members alone or the family as unit or dyad.…”

“…The nurses completed an intensive educational and practical training programme; had continuous supervision by the project leader; and attended workshops, lectures and an international family nursing conference. The intervention offered an average of three sessions over 6-12 weeks to the families tailored to their needs [61,62].…”