Family Centered Care

By: Alysia Brillhart

NRS 204

Instructor: Melanie Milbrodt

Due Date: 8/8/2021

What does the concept of family centered care mean in nursing? To me, family centered

care involves providing care to not only the patient, but to the family as well. This means that

the family should be included in the overall plan of care that the patient receives. In this paper,

I will utilize nursing articles and other resources to discuss family centered care and its use in

the obstetric and pediatric areas. Secondly, I will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of

family centered care for the family and for the nurses involved. In addition, I will explain how

patient education, culture, values, and beliefs can influence family centered care. Lastly, I will

discuss my personal thoughts regarding the use of family centered care.

Family Centered Care (FCC)

According to the Institute For Patient and Family Centered Care (IPFCC), there are core

concepts involved to help lead to improved health outcomes and patient satisfaction. One of

the core concepts involves dignity and respect. In regards to family centered care, health care

providers can embody dignity and respect by listening and honoring the patient’s and family’s

wishes regarding care. In addition, the healthcare providers should be sure to incorporate the

patient and the family’s values, beliefs and cultural backgrounds into the care being provided.

The second concept is information sharing, which is when the healthcare providers

communicate exclusively any medical information regarding the patient’s care. The third

concept includes participation. The patient and family should be encouraged to participate in

any decisions that need to be made regarding the patients’ care. The last concept is

collaboration, which involves health care providers, the patient and family working together to

come up with an appropriate plan of care based on the patients and family’s needs (IPFCC,
n.d.).
In one of the nursing articles that I found; it discussed the importance of

family centered care in the first postpartum year. The article stated, that the term family

centered care (FCC), consists of “the planning, delivery and evaluation of health care that is

grounded in mutually beneficial partnerships among health care providers, patients and

families (Wool, 2019).” This means that FCC in OB may include not only the nurse, patient and

their family, but also every one of the healthcare providers as well in order to promote safe,

quality and effective care to OB patients.

In another article that I found, it discussed the importance of FCC in the care of pediatric

patients. The article stated that “parents of children cared for in the PICU often struggle with

the severity of their child’s illness and how to care for their child in this environment (Hill, Knafl

and Santacroce, 2018).” The family centered care in pediatrics helps parents become more

comfortable with using their voice and advocating for their child. FCC helps them gain more

involvement in the overall care of their child during their hospital stay (Hill, Knafl and

Santacroce, 2018).

Advantages of Family Centered Care

There are some advantages to family centered care in OB and pediatrics. Family

centered can help build a stronger relationship within the family itself due to the increased

communication and interaction among the patients and family members. For example, the

family of an OB patient learning how to feed and bathe the newborn baby together may help

the family feel more involved in the care and will help everyone bond. Family centered care

may also promote comfort for the family and patient by having the ability to have any

questions or concerns addressed. For example, the family of a pediatric patient may have
questions regarding medications that the patient is receiving and could easily ask the nurse any

questions about the medication within the family centered care approach.

There are also advantages for nurses when it comes to family centered care. The

implementation of family centered care allows for the nurse to form a bond with the patient

and the patient’s family. They can communicate with the patient’s and their families by

assessing coping abilities, emotional states, needs and preferences of the family and the patient

in order to promote safe, quality and effective care (Coats et al., 2018). This can also help build

a trusting relationship, which helps improve patient and family satisfaction.

Disadvantages of Family Centered Care

There are some disadvantages of FCC in OB and pediatrics. One disadvantage for the

families is that there may be differing views on how the patient should be treated. For example,

for a pediatric patient, one parent may want a certain type of treatment for the child while the

other parent disagrees with that choice of treatment. Another disadvantage to family centered

care for the family may be that may not understand the medical terminology being used by the

healthcare providers, or they might not fully understand what their child is going through

medically due to a lack of knowledge.

When it comes to disadvantages for nurses in regards to family centered care, there are

a few. One disadvantage is that nurses may have a difficult time managing their time to speak

to each individual patient and their families about their individual needs questions regarding

care. A second disadvantage may be that there could be uncoordinated communication among

all of the healthcare professionals and family members involved. Another disadvantage is that

nurses could become more distracted and stressed with having extra family members at the
patient’s bedside, which could cause for the nurse to have to explain the updated plan of care

of their patients to every additional family member (Coats et al., 2018).

Importance of Education

Nurses play an important role with educating when family centered care is being

implemented. The nurses “serve as educators by interpreting medical information and

facilitating communication between physicians and families (Coats et al., 2018).” Therefore,

nurses have the responsibility of assessing the knowledge skills of the patient and family

members and ensuring that they fully understand what treatments will be performed.

Culture/Values/Beliefs

As with any type of patient care, it is important to identify the cultural background,

values and beliefs of every patient and family when it comes to family centered care. The care

that is provided to the patients should be equal among all patients, but also allow for some

flexibility so that patients and their families can still make personal choices regarding care. The

nurse must understand that a patient’s cultural background, values or beliefs may prevent

them from undergoing certain treatments (Coats et al., 2018).

My Personal Thoughts Regarding FCC

As I am reflecting on the concept of family centered care, I realize that I truly didn’t

understand what all it entitled until I began researching about it for this assignment. I have

always tried to include the family when it comes to keeping them up to date on the plan of care

for the patient, but I never really understood the importance of it. Now I realize that family

centered care can help promote a trusting relationship between the nurse, the patient, the

family and everyone else that is involved. I feel that family centered care is very beneficial and
it can likely help improve the quality of the care that is being provided.

Conclusion

Overall, it seems as though family centered care in OB and pediatrics is beneficial to not

only the patients, but to the family and healthcare providers as well. Since doing this

assignment, I have learned so much more about the importance of family centered care in not

only OB and pediatrics, but in all specialties of nursing. It has become evident that family

centered care can help promote quality, safe and effective care of patients.
 Reference

Coats, H., Bourget, E., Starks, H., Lindhorst, T., Saiki-Craighill, S., Curtis, J. R., Hays, R., &

Doorenbos, A. (2018, January). Nurses' reflections on benefits and challenges of

IMPLEMENTING Family-Centered care in pediatric intensive care units. American

journal of critical care : an official publication, American Association of Critical-Care

Nurses. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5959722/. 

Hill, C., Knafl, K. A., & Santacroce, S. J. (2018). Family-Centered care from the perspective of

parents of CHILDREN cared for in a pediatric intensive care Unit: An INTEGRATIVE

REVIEW. Journal of pediatric nursing.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5955783/. 

Patient- and family-centered care. What is PFCC? (n.d.).

https://www.ipfcc.org/about/pfcc.html. 

Wool, C. (2019). Family-Centered care in the First Postpartum Year.

https://www.pampersprofessional.com/sfsites/c/resource/FamilyCenteredCareInFirstP

ostpartumYear