Family History

Taking a family history is an important step in determining current and future health needs and education. There are many tools available to complete a comprehensive health history. The Surgeon General’s Family Health History tool is part of the larger Family Health History Initiative that encourages people to talk about and write down health issues that seem to run in the family, bringing a larger focus on this important issue. This assignment allows the learner to use the tool and become familiar with this initiative.

General Guidelines:

Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment:

• This assignment uses a rubric.      Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become      familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
• Doctoral learners are required to      use APA style for their writing assignments. The APA Style Guide is      located in the Student Success Center.
• This assignment requires that at      least two additional scholarly research sources related to this topic, and      at least one in-text citation from each source be included.
• You are required to submit this      assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.
• Use the Surgeon General’s Family      History Tool at (http://www.hhs.gov/familyhistory/portrait/index.html)      to complete this assignment.

Directions:

Use the Surgeon General’s Family History Tool (http://www.hhs.gov/familyhistory/portrait/index.html) to document your own family history. (Kristine, I am African American and my family history is Diabetes, hypertension and heart disease.)

Designate a proband for the pedigree with a disease or condition of interest.

Write a 750-1,000 word summary of your findings. Include the following information:

1. Discussion of the heredity patterns discovered.

2. Evaluate the risk of transmission to other/new family members.

3. Propose the feasibility of using this tool in your own practice.