(Eggenberger, Meiers, Krumwiede, Bliesmer, Earle, 2001).
Family engagement with illness refers to the family’s view of the illness in the context of their family life and family functioning. Engagement with a chronic illness includes the family’s approach to connecting, pondering and struggling as a family experiencing and managing an illness (Eggenberger, Meiers, Krumwiede, Bliesmer, Earle, 2001).
· Invite family presence and engage in use of nurse presence
· Develop individual-nurse-family relationship/connection/partnership
· Assess family struggling and ways to support the family
· Acknowledge the work of family during illness experience
· Explore the thinking and concerns of family
· Discuss with family their connections with each other and the illness