It has been established over the past decades that the notion of health should never be addressed in isolation to the socio-cultural background and lifestyle of a person. One’s health, instead, is a complex combination of physiological, psychological, and socio-cultural factors, also known as functional health patterns. These patterns, including such essential information as health perception, nutrition, elimination, physical activity, cognition, rest, relationships, sexuality, beliefs, and coping with stress, allow nurses to collect data on contributing factors leading to a current healthcare complication (Whitney, 2018). The context in which patients perceive their health may differ drastically from the nurse’s definition of health. Thus, by asking the patient about their family of surroundings support, overall work-rest balance, and spiritual beliefs, the nurses, create a roadmap of further interventions and education initiatives.
For example, when assessing a patient with gastritis, the primary attention should be drawn to the metabolic-nutritional and elimination functional patterns. The nurse should ask about the usual meal intake patterns, the intake of salt and fluids, recent complaints on food digestion, bowel movement, and weight management. However, while these questions will give the nurse insight into the condition’s pathology, collecting information on the other aspects of the patient’s life may lead to more revealing information. For example, it could be found in the course of examination that the sudden negative tendencies in the nutrition patterns are associated with a stressful event, with the patient being reluctant to eat for a long time and then suddenly ordering out spicy take-out food. In this case, besides medical intervention, the nurse should make sure the patient is provided with psychological help and counseling if necessary. Without functional health patterns, the nurse is incapable of advocating for holistic and meaningful care.
Whitney, S. (2018). Elimination complexities. In Pathophysiology clinical applications for client health. Grand Canyon University. Web.