Family Centered Care Paper

Family centered care (FCC) involves caring for the entire family as a whole (Hammarstand & Loewen, 2013). This approach is appropriate when caring for a new mother, father and baby, which relates to a clinical experience I was involved in. The purpose of this paper is to link a true clinical experience to the family centered care nursing approach. In writing this paper I hope to reflect on my prejudgment feelings and be able to not have preconceived feelings regardless of the patient situation. This paper will discuss a clinical context in which family centered care was utilized, the definition of and concepts of family centered care, and a personal reflection pertaining to the clinical situation.

Clinical Experience

In the clinical setting

I was assigned care for one patient and newborn, six hours postpartum. I received guidance from my instructor throughout the day when needed, and was paired with the primary nurse assigned to this patient and newborn. At first when reading the chart to see it was a sixteen year old mother, I have to admit I had pre conceived feelings. But before I entered the room I put those feelings out of my head, because I did not know the patient’s situation, I should not being judging anyone’s situation. I was there to teach these parents how to care for their newborn, and I did. I spent the day giving gentle encouragement to the mother about holding the baby and the benefits of skin-to-skin contact. During the day the infant was due for a bath, I assisted the father with step by step teaching on how to bath the infant, as well as how to perform a diaper change, and proper instruction on supporting infants neck while picking up and holding infant. The mother’s own mother and grandmother visited in the afternoon, her family seemed to be very supportive. Throughout the day, I found my buddy nurse not responsive to their questions, never explained what she was doing with the baby and while not in room made comments about the mother’s young behavior regarding a stuffed animal the mother slept with, this kind of talk made me feel uncomfortable, but I never advocated for the family either, as a student I find this very