| Course | NSG 323 Community and Public Health Nursing |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 2 |
| Paper type | Family home visit assessment |
| Length | About 1,060 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Herzing University |
| Program | RN to BSN |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for NSG 323 Unit 2
A Home Visit to a Three-Generation Household After a Heart Failure Discharge: Family Assessment Using the Calgary Model
Student Name
Department of Nursing, Herzing University
NSG 323: Community and Public Health Nursing
Instructor Name
January 27, 2026
A Home Visit to a Three-Generation Household After a Heart Failure Discharge: Family Assessment Using the Calgary Model
Purpose and Arrangements
The visit took place on January 22, 2026, at 3:30 p.m., four days after Gloria, 78, was discharged from the hospital following her second admission in six months for heart failure. The visit was arranged by phone with her daughter, Denise, who chose the time because she works nights and sleeps until early afternoon. The stated purpose, agreed on the phone, was to see how the family was managing at home and to help with whatever they found hardest. Present were Gloria; Denise, 49, a home health aide; and Denise's son, Marcus, 17, who arrived from school halfway through. Names are changed and details combined from more than one family. I introduced myself as a student nurse, explained what I would and would not do, and asked where they would like me to sit.
Framework
The assessment uses the Calgary Family Assessment Model, which looks at the family's structure, its development, and its functioning, including how members carry out daily tasks and how they communicate and solve problems (Shajani & Snell, 2019). The model treats the family as the unit of care and asks what the family itself identifies as its concerns, which shaped the questions I asked.
The Household as Observed
The family rents the lower unit of a two-story house. Gloria's bedroom is on the main floor, a change Denise made after the first admission, but the only full bathroom is upstairs; a commode sits beside Gloria's bed. The living room has a throw rug at the entrance and an extension cord across the doorway to the kitchen. The home was warm and clean. In the kitchen, Gloria's medications were kept in a basket on the counter: 11 bottles, including two bottles of metoprolol from two different pharmacies with different tablet strengths. The pantry held canned soups and packaged noodles; Denise said Gloria likes them because they are easy to warm. There was no bathroom scale in the house.
I described what I saw to the family as questions rather than findings, for example asking how they decide which metoprolol bottle to use, rather than telling them a duplicate existed. Gloria said she takes "the blue one" and did not know there were two.
Family Structure and Development
Gloria is widowed and moved in with Denise four years ago. Denise is divorced and is the family's only earner. Marcus is a high school senior who plans to start community college in the fall. A second daughter lives two hours away and calls weekly. The family's church is a strong part of Gloria's life; members bring meals and drive her to services. Developmentally, the family is managing two transitions at once: an older parent's growing dependence and a young adult's approaching departure. Denise said directly that she worries about what happens at night once Marcus leaves, because he is the one home with Gloria while Denise works.
Family Functioning
Daily tasks are divided without much discussion. Denise manages appointments, prescriptions, and groceries. Marcus gives Gloria her morning medications before school and checks on her at night. Gloria cooks lunch for herself and folds laundry, and said that doing these things keeps her from feeling like a burden. Decisions are mostly Denise's, and Gloria defers to her on medical matters while asserting herself about food and church. Communication was warm and humorous; when Marcus teased Gloria about the soups, she laughed and said she has eaten them her whole life.
Strain was visible and named. Denise sleeps about five hours a day, has missed shifts to attend appointments, and described feeling that she is "doing two jobs and neither one well." Caregivers of people with heart failure often report a heavy burden, and research has examined which features of the caregiver and of the patient's condition are linked to that burden (Saunders, 2008). Marcus said he does not mind helping but is not sure what to do if his grandmother becomes short of breath at night.
Health of Each Member
Gloria: heart failure and type 2 diabetes; mild ankle swelling today; she said she sleeps on two pillows and gets short of breath climbing the stairs, which she now avoids. She did not know her discharge weight or what weight gain should prompt a call. Denise: hypertension, on medication, and chronic low back pain from lifting clients at work. Marcus: healthy, no concerns raised.
The Family's Priorities and Mine
When asked what would help most, Denise said night coverage when Marcus leaves, and Gloria said getting back to church every Sunday without getting out of breath. Neither mentioned the medications or the salt. My own concerns were the duplicate metoprolol, daily weights, sodium, fall hazards, and Denise's strain. The plan connects the two lists: staying out of the hospital and getting to church depend partly on the self-care tasks that heart failure requires, including daily weights and recognizing early symptoms (Riegel et al., 2017).
Agreed next steps, in the family's words where possible: Denise will take all 11 bottles to one pharmacy for review this week, and I will call the primary care office about the two metoprolol prescriptions today. The home health referral from discharge had not been scheduled; I called with Denise present and arranged a nursing visit for Monday, and asked that a scale be brought. Marcus asked for, and received, a simple list of symptoms that mean call 911 and symptoms that mean call the clinic in the morning. Gloria agreed to try the low-sodium versions of two of her soups, not to give them up. The rug and extension cord were pointed out as trip hazards, and Denise moved both before I left; fall risk screening will be completed at the home health visit (Stevens & Phelan, 2013). Night coverage after Marcus leaves is a longer-term need; I gave Denise the number for the Area Agency on Aging and will ask the home health social worker to help explore options.
Reflection
Going in, I expected to find a patient who needed teaching. What I found was a family that was already working hard and a caregiver close to exhaustion. The most useful thing I did was probably not teaching but making two phone calls while Denise watched, which removed work from her rather than adding to it.
References
Riegel, B., Moser, D. K., Buck, H. G., Dickson, V. V., Dunbar, S. B., Lee, C. S., Lennie, T. A., Lindenfeld, J., Mitchell, J. E., Treat-Jacobson, D. J., & Webber, D. E. (2017). Self-care for the prevention and management of cardiovascular disease and stroke: A scientific statement for healthcare professionals from the American Heart Association. Journal of the American Heart Association, 6(9), Article e006997. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.117.006997
Saunders, M. M. (2008). Factors associated with caregiver burden in heart failure family caregivers. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 30(8), 943-959. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945908319990
Shajani, Z., & Snell, D. (2019). Wright & Leahey's nurses and families: A guide to family assessment and intervention (7th ed.). F.A. Davis.
Stevens, J. A., & Phelan, E. A. (2013). Development of STEADI: A fall prevention resource for health care providers. Health Promotion Practice, 14(5), 706-714. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839912463576
Reading the NSG 323 Unit 2 instructions
Unit 2 asks you to assess a family during a home visit using a family assessment model. Expect to describe the purpose and arrangements, apply a framework such as the Calgary model or Friedman's, describe the household, assess structure, development and functioning, consider each member's health, compare the family's priorities with yours and reflect. Many versions ask what makes a home visit different from a clinic assessment and how to avoid the visit feeling like an inspection. Check whether your section requires a real family with consent or a composite. The home shows things a clinic cannot, such as stairs, medications and who actually helps. Ask the family what would help most before offering your plan. Record strengths as well as risks. Reflection on your own assumptions is usually expected.
How this NSG 323 Unit 2 example is built
The assessment opens with when, where and why the visit happened, which frames the rest. The framework section explains the Calgary model's three areas in a paragraph. The household section describes the home factually, including changes made for Gloria. Structure and development explain who lives there and where the family is in its life cycle. Functioning describes how tasks and decisions are shared. The health section covers each member, including the caregiver's own strain. The priorities section sets the family's wishes beside the nurse's assessment and finds where they meet. The reflection section is honest about the nurse's starting assumption. Each part draws on the model's categories, so the assessment is organized rather than a list of observations.
Where the points sit in the NSG 323 Unit 2 rubric
Herzing's rubric for a family home visit typically covers use of a family assessment model, the description of the household, assessment of structure, development and functioning, health of all members, attention to family priorities and reflection. Application of the model is checked section by section, since graders want each category filled with observations from this visit. Household points reward details only a home visit reveals. Health criteria look for every member, including caregivers. Priority points go to the family's own wishes, recorded in their words. Reflection earns credit for honest self-examination. Strengths should appear alongside risks. Respectful tone is scored throughout. Organization by the model's headings helps the grader find each part. Shajani and Thorne's Calgary text and Riegel's statement belong in the APA 7 list.
NSG 323 Unit 2 help before you submit
Family assessments in Unit 2 commonly lose points by focusing on the discharged patient and ignoring the rest of the household. Another frequent problem is naming the model but not using its categories. Students often skip the caregiver's health. The family's priorities are not asked, so the plan reflects only the nurse's view. Strengths are missing. The home environment is described vaguely, missing stairs, medication storage or who helps at night. Reflection is generic. The visit reads like an inspection rather than a partnership. Consent and privacy are not mentioned. Finally, record what the family said would help most, because graders reward assessments that treat the family as experts on their own situation.
Get a NSG 323 Unit 2 example written to your instructions
Send the Unit 2 instructions and the rubric from your NSG 323 classroom, plus the family situation your assessment covers. We write a custom example organized by a named framework, with the family's own priority recorded and the plan built from it, returned in 24 to 48 hours. The first custom sample is free.
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NSG 323 Unit 2 questions, answered
What makes a home visit different from a clinic assessment?
You see how the family actually lives. Medication kept where a toddler can reach it, a kitchen with nothing fresh in it, a bedroom on the second floor for somebody who cannot manage stairs: none of this is visible in a clinic and all of it changes the plan. You are also a guest, which alters what you can ask and how you ask it.
How do I avoid the visit feeling like an inspection?
Follow their agenda first and observe as you go. A nurse who arrives, asks what the family needs and addresses that will see far more than one who works through a checklist of hazards. Note what you observe, raise what matters, and leave the rest for a relationship that continues, because a family that feels judged will not open the door again.
Why record the family's own priority separately?
Because it is frequently different from yours and it determines what actually happens. A family worried about heating costs will not act on a plan about diet, however sound. Record both, address theirs first where you safely can, and say in the plan where clinical priority had to override preference and how you explained that.
Where can I find a free NSG 323 Unit 2 sample paper?
Read the complete NSG 323 Unit 2 Calgary model home visit here at no charge, structure, functioning, each member's health and the family's priorities. An assessment of a different family can be prepared on request.
What is the Calgary Family Assessment Model?
It assesses a family's structure, development and functioning, looking at who is in the family, where it is in its life cycle and how members share tasks and decisions. This sample applies it to a household caring for a woman with heart failure.