Type of Document	Dissertation
Author	Waddell, Rhondda Faye
Author's Email Address	wadderf@dean.med.ufl.edu
URN	etd-11072006-173727
Title	The Utility of the Family Health Survey for Interdisciplinary Health Care Training in Family Health Assessment
Degree	Doctor of Philosophy
Department	Social Work, College of
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Neil Abell Committee Chair Marie Cowart Committee Member Mary Ann Burg Committee Member Nicolas Mazza Committee Member
Keywords	Interdisciplinary Health Training
Date of Defense	2006-10-25
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract Assessment is the key to identification of appropriate support and intervention in family health care. Current reviews of assessment tools and practice are being utilized in health prevention and intervention programs. The family, its function, structure, rules, and beliefs are known to have a significant relationship to the health behaviors and illness outcomes of family members (Gillis & Knafl, 1999; and Marmot & Wilkinson, 1999). Currently there is no standardized approach by which interdisciplinary health professionals are trained to conduct family health assessments. The University of Florida Health Science Center interdisciplinary team of health professionals conducted the initial development and administration of the FHS for the Interdisciplinary Family Health course. A 48-item health focused scale contained 11 social support items, 16 health behavior items, and 21 health belief items. This exploratory focus group study was designed to identify how the different health professions responded to the utility of the FHS as a measure for specific aspects of family centered health care assessment. The focus group included social work, medicine, dental, pharmacy, physical therapy, and interdisciplinary health professionals whose aims included: 1) The examination of the faculty’s perceived usefulness of the FHS questionnaire for interdisciplinary health care training in family health assessment. 2) The exploration of the interdisciplinary collaborative team members’ perspectives on family preventive health behaviors as identified by the FHS. 3) The identification of potential health and social problems that may impact health outcomes by using the FHS. The six health profession focus groups agreed that the FHS questionnaire was a useful tool for training interdisciplinary health profession students in family health assessment, but limitations of the survey tool existed for clinical practice. Responses suggested that using the FHS can identify a whole families health needs and inform the IFH students family health project planning. Issues related to improvement for the future re-design of the FHS were identified, and the challenges and opportunities for the interdisciplinary health professionals actively involved in the assessment process are recognized.
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