Family Health History Paper

Every human inherits countless genes from the generations before them predetermining many inherited physical factors such as athletic abilities or eye and hair color. Likewise, the same genetics also predisposes a person to inherit risk factors involving health such as cancer, diabetes, or cardiovascular disease. Yet, unlike visual genetic factors, health related factors are not as easy to identify. Not only do families share similar genetic makeups, they also share similar life patterns, and environments that can alter health and wellness. The purpose of this paper is to present a detailed family health history of a patient, including the genetic risk factor identified and the nurse’s strategy for interventions.
Family Members and Health History
A full and accurate family history must be established to properly collect and assess family traits, lifestyles, and possible genetic factors that predispose a patient to disease or illness (Calzone, Cashion, Feetham, Jenkins, Prows, Williams, & Wung, 2010). To start, both sets of grandparent’s health
Therefore, the nurse asks and discovers that the patient has had no prior teaching on genetic family health history risks. The patient shares that her family does not openly discuss past health histories and that they have never discussed future health risks that she herself may experience in relation to the diseases of past generations. The patient explains that her prior understanding was that specific genetic blood testing was the only way to determine hereditary health risks. The nurse clarifies that although genetic testing does detect mutilations in genetic genes, this type of genetic testing does not consider such things as lifestyle or environmental