| Course | NURS 6910 Introduction to Palliative Care: Principles of Hospice and Palliative Care |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 7 |
| Paper type | Family assessment |
| Length | About 1,020 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for NURS 6910 Week 7
The Family as the Patient: A Calgary Model Assessment of a Household Caring for a 59-Year-Old Man With Recurrent Glioblastoma
Student Name
College of Nursing, Walden University
NURS 6910: Introduction to Palliative Care: Principles of Hospice and Palliative Care
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
The Family as the Patient: A Calgary Model Assessment of a Household Caring for a 59-Year-Old Man With Recurrent Glioblastoma
Introduction
Palliative care treats the patient and family as one unit of care, and a family assessment is how that principle becomes practical. This paper assesses the household of a composite 59-year-old man, a former high school science teacher, whose glioblastoma has recurred after surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. His neuro-oncologist has discussed further treatment options with limited expected benefit, and the palliative care team has been following him at home for three weeks. The tumor has changed his personality as well as his body: he has had two seizures, his speech sometimes stalls, and he has become quick to anger in ways his family says are "not him." Wright and Leahey's Calgary Family Assessment Model guides the work here; it sorts what a nurse learns about a family into structural, developmental and functional categories and pairs them with two drawings, a genogram and an ecomap (Wright & Leahey, 2013).
Genogram and Ecomap
The genogram covers three generations. The patient's parents are deceased; his mother died of breast cancer in her sixties, and the family recalls that her last months were spent in a hospital. He and his wife, 57, have been married 32 years. Their daughter, 30, lives ten minutes away with her husband and a two-year-old son. Their son, 27, lives two states away and works in software. The patient's older sister lives nearby but has been estranged from him for years.
The ecomap shows the household's connections outside the family. A strong line runs to a retired colleague who visits twice a week and sits with the patient while his wife runs errands. A strong but stressful line runs to the wife's employer, a school district where she works as an office manager and has used most of her leave. Thin lines run to the church the couple attended before his diagnosis and to a brain tumor support group they joined once. A broken line runs to the patient's sister.
Structural Assessment
The couple now live by themselves; their bedroom and their one full bathroom are both on the second floor. The wife is the primary caregiver on weekdays after work and overnight. The daughter manages his medications on weekends, fills the weekly pill organizer and coordinates appointments, while caring for a toddler. The son calls most evenings and visited once since the recurrence. Roles are clear but unevenly weighted: nearly all hands-on care falls to the wife, and nearly all coordination to the daughter.
Developmental Assessment
The couple is in the stage of later middle age, when many families launch adult children and plan the next phase of work and retirement. They had planned for him to retire in three years and travel. Instead, the wife faces widowhood years earlier than expected while still working, and the daughter is caring for a parent and a young child at once. The son, at an age when his career is taking shape, faces a choice between moving home and staying where his work is. The illness has compressed several developmental transitions into months.
Functional Assessment
Instrumental functioning. The family manages daily tasks with strain. The wife helps him on the stairs and in the shower, and his seizures have made her afraid to leave him alone. She reports low back pain from helping him up after a fall.
Expressive functioning. Communication has changed because he has changed. His irritability is directed mostly at his wife, who says she knows it is the tumor but still goes to bed hurt. Family caregivers of people with brain tumors describe personality and cognitive change as among the hardest parts of care, and report unmet needs for information and support (Schubart et al., 2008). Decisions are made by the wife and daughter together, with the patient consulted but increasingly deferring. The son offers advice by phone, for example about clinical trials he has read about, which the daughter experiences as criticism of the care she is providing. Problem solving is practical and effective between the wife and daughter, but no one has yet talked with him about what he wants as the disease advances.
Caregiver Burden
The wife filled out the Zarit Burden Interview in its 12-item form, which was derived from the full instrument to measure caregiver burden more briefly (Bédard et al., 2001). Her score was 29 of a possible 48, with her highest ratings on items about not having enough time for herself and feeling that her health has suffered. The team reads the score together with her back pain and her own words, "I'm not sleeping and I'm not sure how long I can do this," as substantial burden. The score also gives the team a baseline for measuring whether respite and support make a difference.
Strengths and Limits of the Assessment
The family has clear strengths: a long marriage, an adult daughter who is organized and nearby, a friend who shows up reliably and a son who wants to help. The assessment has one clear limit. The son was not present, and his view is known only through what the others report and what his calls change. That limit is named rather than filled with assumptions.
Implications for the Plan
Three priorities follow. First, the wife needs relief: the team will arrange home health aide visits for bathing, discuss a bedroom and bathroom setup on the ground floor, and refer her to the social worker for leave options at work. Early palliative care for caregivers in the ENABLE III trial was associated with lower depression scores and stress burden among caregivers (Dionne-Odom et al., 2015). Second, a family meeting including the son by video will give everyone the same information about the illness and give the son a role, such as researching trials with the neuro-oncologist rather than with his sister. Third, the patient's own wishes need to be heard while he can still express them; the nurse will begin a goals-of-care conversation with him at the next visit, with his wife present if he agrees.
References
Bédard, M., Molloy, D. W., Squire, L., Dubois, S., Lever, J. A., & O'Donnell, M. (2001). The Zarit Burden Interview: A new short version and screening version. Gerontologist, 41(5), 652-657. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/41.5.652
Dionne-Odom, J. N., Azuero, A., Lyons, K. D., Hull, J. G., Tosteson, T., Li, Z., Li, Z., Frost, J., Dragnev, K. H., Akyar, I., Hegel, M. T., & Bakitas, M. A. (2015). Benefits of early versus delayed palliative care to informal family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer: Outcomes from the ENABLE III randomized controlled trial. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 33(13), 1446-1452. https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2014.58.7824
Schubart, J. R., Kinzie, M. B., & Farace, E. (2008). Caring for the brain tumor patient: Family caregiver burden and unmet needs. Neuro-Oncology, 10(1), 61-72. https://doi.org/10.1215/15228517-2007-040
Wright, L. M., & Leahey, M. (2013). Nurses and families: A guide to family assessment and intervention (6th ed.). F. A. Davis.
Reading the NURS 6910 Week 7 instructions
Family assessment prompts in Week 7 typically ask you to assess the family of a patient with serious illness using a nursing family framework, identify strengths and needs and propose interventions. Expect four or more pages, often with a genogram and an ecomap attached or described. Choose a framework, such as the Calgary model, and let its categories organize the paper. Describe structure, development and function with specific findings. Measure caregiver strain with a recognized instrument where you can, and interpret the result with the caregiver's own words. Note strengths as well as needs. Say whose voice you could not hear. Close with priorities that trace back to specific findings, so the plan is family-centered rather than generic.
How this NURS 6910 Week 7 example is built
The introduction presents the patient and his illness and cites Wright and Leahey for the Calgary model. A section describes the genogram across three generations and the ecomap's strong, stressful, thin and broken ties. Structural assessment covers the two-story house and the uneven division of care. Developmental assessment describes transitions compressed by the illness. Functional assessment covers instrumental tasks, his irritability, decision making and the son's long-distance advice, citing Schubart and colleagues on brain tumor caregivers. A burden section cites Bédard and colleagues and reports the wife's score. Strengths and limits follow. Three priorities close the paper, citing Dionne-Odom and colleagues on early palliative care for caregivers.
Reading the NURS 6910 Week 7 rubric
Family assessments are generally evaluated on correct use of the framework, depth of assessment, attention to the caregiver and a plan tied to findings. Framework credit goes to categories applied with specific observations rather than definitions. Graders reward patterns found, such as who holds which task and how the family now talks. Caregiver assessment earns a distinct share when an instrument is used and interpreted in context. Strengths are often a stated criterion. Graders also value honesty about gaps in the assessment. The plan scores well when every priority traces to a finding. APA citations, a readable genogram or description and professional tone complete the rubric.
NURS 6910 Week 7 help: mistakes that cost marks
Family assessments lose marks when they describe the patient in detail and the family in a paragraph. Another loss is listing Calgary categories with definitions and no findings under them. Some papers report a burden score without saying what it means for this caregiver. Others judge family members, for example calling the absent son uncaring, instead of describing patterns and their effects. Use the framework to organize real findings, assess the caregiver with an instrument and her words, name strengths and gaps and build priorities from the findings. The desk can draft an assessment for the family your scenario describes. Keep all family members unidentifiable if you draw on practice. If your scenario gives little about one member, say what you would ask at the next visit.
Get a NURS 6910 Week 7 example written to your instructions
Attach the Week 7 rubric and the family your prompt describes, including who lives in the home and who provides care. The assessment comes back with a genogram, an ecomap and a findings table tied to the plan, turned around in 24-48 hours. Nothing is charged for the first one. Another model, if your course prefers one, replaces Calgary.
More NURS 6910 papers and MSN samples
- NURS 6910 Week 1: Discussion post
- NURS 6910 Week 2: Concept comparison paper
- NURS 6910 Week 3: Models of care analysis
- NURS 6910 Week 4: Eligibility and referral memo
- NURS 6910 Week 5: Goals of care plan
- NURS 6910 Week 6: Communication case
- NURS 6910 Week 8: Discussion post
- NURS 6910 Week 9: Spiritual and cultural assessment
- NURS 6910 Week 10: Palliative Case Analysis
- NURS 6910 Week 11: Reflection
- NURS 6730 Week 7: Preparedness leadership plan
- NURS 6720 Week 7: Cultural adaptation memo
- DNRS 6501 Week 7: Differential analysis
- NURS 6710 Week 7: Health disparity analysis
NURS 6910 Week 7 questions, answered
What is the Calgary Family Assessment Model?
A nursing framework, developed by Wright and Leahey, that assesses families across structural, developmental and functional categories. The example uses those three as its main headings and draws a genogram and an ecomap as the model recommends. Should your prompt name a different family framework, the same people and findings move under its categories without losing the link to the plan.
Why measure the wife's burden with an instrument?
Because burden described as heavy cannot be compared later, and the plan proposes respite that someone will want to evaluate. The Zarit Burden Interview is a widely used caregiver measure, and the example reports its result and interprets it beside her back pain and her own words. Your course may prefer another caregiver tool; the reasoning holds either way.
How is the absent son assessed?
Through what the others report and what his calls change, which the paper says openly is a limitation. His long-distance advice is recorded as a pattern with an effect on the daughter, not as a verdict on him. A strong assessment names the voices it could not hear, and the example notes that a family meeting is where his view could finally be heard.
Where can I find a free NURS 6910 Week 7 sample paper?
The complete family assessment, genogram and ecomap description, three Calgary sections, the burden score and priorities, is free on this page. An assessment for the family in your own scenario can be requested.
Which illness does the NURS 6910 Week 7 family face?
Recurrent glioblastoma, which has changed the patient's personality and brought seizures, leaving his wife afraid to leave him alone and the family adjusting to a person who is at times not himself.