NursingWritten assignmentFamily nursing

Family health assessment: two-part nursing assessment

A three-page nursing assessment of a family in your own community, covering structure, socio-economic roles, home environment, health status and health promotion, then an evaluation, a nursing care plan and four local resources with contact details.

Aug 13, 2026

Editorial process

Last reviewed · August 13, 2026

Written by

Aaron Bishop

MA, Education

assignment interpretation and research-methods coaching across disciplines

Reviewed by

Dr. Nathan Cole

PhD, Rhetoric & Composition

Argumentation and thesis development

On this page

Interpret the task
Assignment instructions
Deliverables
Proposed outline
Research plan
Reference shortlist
Final review

Assessment first, then a plan that follows from it

The assignment names its own headings, so the structure is settled before you start: socio-economic, environment, health status, health promotion, evaluation, nursing care plan, resources. What is not settled is whether Part 2 will actually rest on Part 1, and that is where most submissions come apart. Students collect the family data conscientiously, then write a care plan about whatever they know most about, and the two halves sit side by side without touching. The assessor is reading for the join. Every nursing diagnosis in Part 2 should be traceable to a specific finding in Part 1, and any finding significant enough to appear in the assessment should either generate a diagnosis or be explicitly noted as a strength. Interviewing with the care plan in mind is what makes that possible, so read the Part 2 requirements before you sit down with the family rather than afterwards.

Two requirements carry more weight than their length suggests. The prompt asks for both actual and potential nursing diagnoses, which means at least one risk diagnosis grounded in something the family does not yet have: a family history, an environmental exposure, a health behaviour with a known trajectory. And the resources requirement is unusually specific, demanding at least four local community resources with names, addresses and telephone numbers, with internet resources explicitly excluded. That exclusion is deliberate. A list of national websites would tell an assessor nothing about your community, whereas naming the county health department, a food assistance programme, a specific clinic and a transport service demonstrates that you know what is actually reachable for this family. The transport note in the brief is a hint worth taking, since limited bus service shapes which of those resources the family can use at all, and interventions must build on the family's existing strengths rather than on services they cannot get to.

Likely learning objectives

Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.

01
Structure a family assessment across functional, developmental and socio-economic domains.
02
Distinguish family structure findings from family process findings.
03
Derive nursing diagnoses from assessment data rather than from general knowledge.
04
Write both actual and risk diagnoses for a family unit.
05
Identify local, contactable community resources appropriate to a family's circumstances.

Assignment instructionsQuoted verbatim

Read the full question

Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.

A family health assessment looks at functional, developmental, and socio-economic perspectives, as spelled out in the following list. In a Word document, use the points in the list to write a 3 page nursing assessment of a family in your home community (City Ocala, County: Marion, State: Florida, Central FLorida Region. Your family health assessment should include the following two parts: Part 1 Family structure refers to the characteristics and demographics (gender, age, number) of individual members who make up family units and defines the roles and positions of family members. Family serves as either a strength or a stressor to the individual. What about extended family? Who is in the family size and composition, relationship between family members? Roles rules, power, hierarchy how do they relate to each other support expect of eacIn a Word document, use the points in the list to write a 3 page nursing assessment of a family in your home community h other Socio-economic, roles, community relationships, and cultural characteristics Income status, social position in relation to others and the community, community participation, family traditions Think about occupation, employment level, income level, educational status, volunteer in community, church, school, community programs, sports, Home and environment, including access to social structures, transportations, health care, and other services Physical environment, how does family access social structures including extended family, a method of transportation, work, understanding of transportation, knowledge of community services. Think about type of home, cleanliness, safety, access to parks, playgrounds, library, recreation, special facilities, church, public or private transportation, social services, and health and emergency services Health status of family members and health behaviors, including a historical perspective. Family health can be viewed as a dynamic, changing, relative state of well-being, which includes the biological, psychological, spiritual, sociological, and cultural factors of a family system. Health promotion practices, behaviors, values, and use of preventive measures, modalities, treatments, and services Points to be sure to include in Part 1: • Family structure (age, gender), characteristics, dynamics, ethnicity, religious practices • Socio-economic roles, community relationships, and cultural characteristics • Home and environment, including access to social structures, transportations (Ocala, Florida has a limited bus transportation system), health care, and other services • Health status of each family member and health behaviors, including a historical perspective • Health promotion practices, behaviors, values, and use of preventive measures, modalities, treatments, and services (in text citation required for each item) Part 2 Present your evaluation of the family\’s health (1-2 paragraphs) Nursing assessment addresses the individual members, subsystems, boundaries, openness, inputs and outputs, family interactions, family processing, and adapting and change abilities. Present a nursing plan for this family that targets intervention and health promotion and prevention (1-2 paragraphs) Interventions must build on the strengths of the family to improve and support functioning at the individual and family level. Family health promotion is deﬁned as achieving maximum family well-being throughout the family life course and includes the biological, emotional, physical, and spiritual realms for family members and the family unit. Resources: Provide a list of at least four recommended resources for any community health professional working with this family in your project community. Local community resources that relate to the assessment and care plan no internet/web resources General types of resources include government, voluntary, and proprietary organizations that provide health and health-related resources and services to families. Nurses assist families, not only by identifying resources but also by being client advocates in helping families learn to use resources. Points to be sure to include in Part 2: • Present your evaluation of the family\’s health of each member (1-2 paragraphs) • Present a nursing plan for this family that targets intervention and health promotion and prevention. Nursing diagnosis actual and potential (1-2 paragraphs) 7 points • Provide a list of at least four recommended resources for any community health professional working with this family in your project community. Be sure to include contact information (name, address, phone number). (in text citation required for each item) Use APA Level 1 Headings below: Socio-economic Environment Health Status Health Promotion Evaluation Nursing Care Plan Resources

Turn the brief into deliverables

01
Part 1 assessment of family structure, characteristics, dynamics, ethnicity and religious practice.
02
Socio-economic roles, community relationships and cultural characteristics.
03
Home and environment, including access to social structures, transport, health care and services.
04
Health status of each family member and health behaviours, with a historical perspective.
05
Health promotion practices, values and use of preventive measures.
06
Part 2 evaluation of each member's health, and a nursing plan with actual and potential diagnoses.
07
At least four local community resources with name, address and telephone number.

The APA Level 1 headings, in order

Family structure

Members, ages, roles, dynamics, ethnicity and religious practice, including extended family.

Socio-economic

Income, occupation, education, social position and community participation.

Environment

Housing, safety, and access to transport, services and recreation in this specific community.

Health status

Each member's current health and history, with behaviours that bear on it.

Health promotion

Preventive practices, screening use, values and where the family gets health information.

Evaluation

Your judgement of each member's health, drawing the assessment together.

Nursing care plan

Actual and potential diagnoses with interventions that build on family strengths.

Resources

Four or more local organisations with contact details and what each provides.

Community resources you can telephone

Recommended databases

County health department directories
United Way 211 listings
CINAHL
PubMed
State public health data portals

Search sequence

1.
Read a family assessment framework so the domains in the prompt map onto recognised categories.
2.
Look up county-level health indicators for the family's community to contextualise findings.
3.
Compile local services by telephone or from a county directory, recording addresses and numbers.
4.
Find evidence for any preventive intervention you plan to recommend.
5.
Check nursing diagnosis wording against a current classification before writing the plan.

Reference shortlist

These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.

Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.

01
Family Dynamics
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023
Structure, roles and process language for Part 1, and the strengths framing Part 2 requires.
02
Nursing Process
StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023
Keeps assessment, diagnosis, planning and evaluation distinct, which is what the two-part structure tests.
03
Social Determinants of Health
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion · 2024
The domains behind the socio-economic and environment headings, citable for each.
04
Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services
Office of Minority Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services · 2024
Cultural and language considerations in family assessment and in resource selection.

Review before submission

Common mistakes

Writing a care plan that does not follow from any finding in the assessment.
Supplying only actual diagnoses when the prompt asks for potential ones too.
Listing national websites as community resources when internet resources are excluded.
Naming resources without contact details, so no one could actually use them.
Describing the family without in-text citations, which the prompt requires for each item.
Ignoring the transport constraint when recommending services across the county.

Submission checklist

The APA Level 1 headings given in the prompt are used exactly.
Each family member's health status is evaluated separately.
Every nursing diagnosis traces to a named assessment finding.
At least one potential or risk diagnosis appears alongside the actual ones.
Four or more local resources appear with name, address and phone number.
No internet or web-only resource is offered as a community resource.
In-text citations appear for each required item, as the prompt states.
The assessment runs to three pages.

Use this guide to plan and review your own work. Follow your institution's rules and read our academic-integrity policy.