1. Running head: FAMILY ASSESSMENT INTERVIEW 1
Family Assessment Interview
Codi Leggett
NURS 323: Nursing Care of Women, Families, & Newborns
Texas A&M Health Science Center

2. FAMILY ASSESSMENT INTERVIEW 2
Family Assessment Interview
A 24-year-old woman was admitted to the couplet care unit after a spontaneous vaginal
delivery. She had her membranes ruptured artificially, an epidural was started, and she gave birth
to a healthy baby girl, 6lbs 3oz. Neither mother nor baby had any significant complications
during birth. Mom has a history of high blood pressure during pregnancy, but no evidence of
these complications during this pregnancy or post-partum. A brief interview was scheduled with
the mother to explore the family history and connections. The father and family were invited to
join in on the interview, but declined. The father of the newborn was present during the night,
but left early in the morning to go out of town. The interview began with the student nurse
introducing herself to the mom. The father did not attend the interview, but a cousin of the
mother was in the corner of the room “resting”. The cousin chose not to participate, but he did
chime in occasionally to give sarcastic comments to the mother. The mother was propped up in
bed feeding her newborn during the interview and was very willing to interact.
The student nurse utilized manners during the interview to establish trust and a
comfortable communicating environment (Holtslander, 2005). Manners mean that the student
nurse uses respect and kindness when speaking to the family (Wright & Leahey, 2009). Although
the cousin denied to participating, the introduction and invitation gave him permission to speak
concerning any of the topics if he chose to do so. The mother was very agreeable to participating
in the interview, and the use of manners created trust for open communication, and she
responded with complete willingness to speak with the student nurse. The safe communication
environment had been developed and even allowed for the mother to speak openly about the
father who was absent for the interview. The mother also verbalized her appreciation for how

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respectful and nice the entire staff had been to her during her stay. This revealed that manners
really helped better her experience as a whole during her hospital stay.
Therapeutic conversation was utilized to dig deeper into the conversation and allow for
open communication as well. The student nurse implemented therapeutic conversation by asking
open-ended questions. Open-ended questions facilitate deeper, richer conversation that can lead
to more insightful information for the student nurse to be informed about. Therapeutic
conversation also allows the family to speak about concerns, joys, strengths, and gives the
opportunity for the family to ask questions about their concerns (Holtslander, 2005). The student
nurse can also be therapeutic by using the skill of listening to the family, which gives them
comfort that they are important and what they are saying is important to the student nurse
(Wright & Leahey, 2009). This also gives the family a chance to openly communicate between
each other, which can be therapeutic, healing, and informative for the members within the
family. The mother was able to hear her cousin’s verbalization of a few things he was thinking
concerning their family, but she was more willing to talk with me than with her cousin. The
cousin provided snide, sarcastic remarks concerning the family of the newborn and the mother’s
tendency to “get rid of him”. The mother responded with a retaliation of snarky comments to her
cousin which then caused him to disengage within the conversation. The student nurse though
was able to regain focus in the interview and maintain trust and open communication with the
mother.
In addition to using the skills explained above, the student nurse then began the more
detailed portion of the interview by gathering data from the mother for a family genogram. This
genogram provides a visual diagram of the family relationships, genetic trends, and
environmental surroundings for the new infant (Holtslander, 2005). The visual representation

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can provide the medical staff and the family on resources that may be useful, or places they may
need extra support (Wright & Leahey, 2009). The genogram allowed for deeper discovery of the
family environment and dynamic and can be referenced in Appendix A below. The father of the
baby is involved with the newborn’s care, and has visited several times. However, the mother
and father are not married, nor are they in a relationship. The mother explained that the father
“talks too much and gets on her nerves”, so she asked him to leave early in the morning before
the student nurse arrived for the scheduled interview. The mother then followed up her
comments by acknowledging that the baby’s father is very helpful when he is around and that he
knows exactly what he is doing with the baby. She verbalized that the father wants to be part of
the newborn’s life and help take care of her as much as he could, but she was rolling her eyes as
she discussed his involvement. The mother has three other children besides her new baby, each
of which are from different fathers, and is not in a relationship with any of them. All of the
children are girls, the oldest is seven and she is in first grade and absolutely loves school as
stated by the mother, and the other two are still at home, ages three and two. However, she
remains in contact with all of her children’s fathers. Additionally, after the interview, when the
family was discharged, they were picked up to go home by her second child’s father. The student
nurse and medical staff viewed this as odd, but patient denied any current intimate relationships
or dating anyone. The newborn has the three half-sisters already mentioned, but also has two
half-siblings on the father’s side; one boy age eight and one girl age one; all of which are healthy
with no significant medical problems. The mother is twenty-four, currently unemployed during
her pregnancy; she used to work in retail, but is not currently working during her pregnancy. She
plans on returning to work as soon as she recovers from pregnancy and labor. Mother is
overweight, anemic, and has a positive history of chlamydia but no current infection. The mother

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has three sisters: twenty-eight (assistant at a medical facility and healthy), twenty-seven (CNA at
a medical facility and healthy), and nineteen (student in college and healthy). The father is
twenty-seven, overall healthy with no significant medical history, no occupation, and has one
younger brother whose age is unknown. The maternal grandparents are both forty-seven and
overall healthy. The maternal grandmother was on a janitorial staff for a business, and her four
daughters are all from separate fathers. This is an interesting observation to the student nurse
because the daughter has followed in the exact footsteps of her mother. Both maternal
grandmother and mother have four daughters all from separate fathers. This is concerning for a
supportive and consistent environment which is desired by social norms for a stable home
atmosphere. However, the grandmother is now married for “a while now” to a stable and
supportive husband whose age is unknown. The maternal grandfather is unemployed and “not
around much” according to the mother. The paternal grandparents are married and healthy, but
ages, employment, and social support are unknown. The entire family is reported to all practice
Christian religious beliefs. The newborn appears to be healthy with no signs of complications,
and bonding well with mother.
The interview was continued utilizing therapeutic questions to gain insight to the
postnatal family feelings and concerns (Holtslander, 2005). These questions are beneficial for
creating an open communication environment for the family to voice concerns, problems, and/or
discover information that they feel they are missing (Wright & Leahey, 2009). Because the
mother has had several prior pregnancies, the student nurse inquired about the differences
between the pregnancies. This surprisingly opened concerns the mother had with the facility of
her prior pregnancies, and her compliments of the current facility in which she was in. The
mother was very opinionated concerning prior facility sanitation practices, but was extremely

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blown away by the respect and genuine care she was receiving currently. The only concerns that
arose during the labor and birth experience for this pregnancy was he felt her epidural wore off
too early and she experienced more pain during labor than before. However, she was surprised
that this pregnancy was much easier and did not have any complications with this birth. After
being asked what was the most difficult thing about the pregnancy and labor this time, the
mother voice that she really did not have any, only that she was tired and needed to sleep.
Several times she asked the nurses to take the infant to the nursery to eat so she could take a nap,
but assured the staff that she could care for her at home, and would have help from her mother.
The maternal grandmother is her biggest supporter, she lives close, and she “comes over every
day to help”. This is assuring to the student nurse because the home support system seems
lacking, but it is comforting to know that the grandmother is so encouraging and supportive in
many way to the mother and their family. There are no major concerns for her right now, she is
confident about supporting the family financially with her returning to her job. Throughout the
interview, the cousin made a few under the breath sarcastic comments concerning the mother’s
attitude toward the infant’s father and she replied with “I’m going to take care of my baby with
or without him”. This is both comforting and a red flag to the student nurse because it shows
tension between the father and mother, however it shows the dedication of the mother to care for
the new baby. This also provided an opportunity for educating the family on resources they can
use for physical and emotional support within the community. The mother closed her comments
by thanking me for spending time to talk with her and making her feel truly cared for by the best.
It is comforting to know that the interview is a useful tool for allowing the family to
communicate with their healthcare team.

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Commendations were provided to the family throughout and in closing of the interview
to provide the mother with encouragement about her strengths and competencies (Holtslander,
2005). The student nurse can use these to continue healthy behaviors and assist with future
learning (Wright & Leahey, 2009). The mother was very comfortable handling her newborn and
when commended on this she responded with laughter and smile and then expressed her desire to
keep a close relationship with all of her kids and wanting them to always be comfortable with her
as their mother. This commendation really hit deeper than expected because it touched a life goal
for the mother and made her feel confident that she was achieving that goal. Additionally, the
mother checks that everyone who handles her newborn has properly washed their hands before
doing so. Once commended on this, she brought up her concerns from her previous pregnancies
that healthcare providers were telling her to always check this, yet not doing it themselves. I was
evident to the student nurse that it had become a protective instinct for her to prevent infection in
her newborn. The mother was also very receptive to all education materials, and even though she
voiced knowing quite a bit already due to prior pregnancies, she engaged in conversation about
the newborn education so she could improve her knowledge as a mother. After commending her
on her willingness to learn she responded with a sweet attitude about being able to apply it to any
of her kids and her goal of raising health kids in a safe environment. This too was comforting to
the student nurse because of the questionable social history of the family, it is assuring to know
the mother is so focused on raising healthy children.
The interview was very beneficial for understanding the family surroundings and what
concerns needed to be addressed. The student nurse was able to develop a better care plan for the
patient and focus discharge teaching on areas that were addressed in the interview. The mother’s

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wonderful feedback concerning the facility as well was beneficial for continuing these practices
with future patients.

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References
Holtslander, L. (2005). Clinical application of the 15-minute family interview: Addressing the
needs of postpartum families. Journal of Family Nursing, 11(1), 5-18. DOI: 10.1177
/1074840704273092
Wright, L. M.; Leahey, M. (2009). Nurses and families: A guide to family assessment and
intervention (pp. 72-83, 245-260) Retrieved from
http://TAMUCS.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=453331

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Appendix A: Genogram