Main description:

Provides foundational knowledge on how to provide current, evidence-based, clinical best practices for the specific needs of adoption and kinship families. The material in this book is well researched, sensitively delivered, and essential for any clinician for adoption and kinship families.

To be a family, and what that means in society, is undergoing dramatic changes that reflect fluidity in the definition of spouse, children, and kin. Pediatric, Family, Adult-Gerontology, and other Advance Practice Nurses increasingly serve as frontline, primary care providers for the growing number of adoption and kinship families. The creation and preservation of these non-traditional families are often replete with social, cultural, and legal issues that the advanced practice nurse must recognize to provide optimal care. This ground-breaking clinical guide breaks down the adoption and kinship triads into their distinct parts, the birth parents, adoptive or kinship parents, and the child, and analyses the relationships among them and how the nurse can assist their development.

Beginning with an overview of adoption and kinship parenting, this book also discusses the specific psychosocial and healthcare-related needs of adoption and kinship families using detailed case studies to illustrate a variety of conditions and circumstances, and how nurses should intervene. A clinically-focused section within the case study chapters covers assessment, interventions, referrals and follow up considerations. Learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter relay major discussion points, and sidebars embedded in each chapter provide related resources for more and evolving information on the healthcare considerations of adoption/kinship families.

Key Features

Addresses nursing's specific role in the holistic assessment and care of the different members of adoption and kinship families
Authored by a renowned nurse leader in adoption and kinship care
Provides chapter objectives, highlights, and questions for the readers' reflection
Promotes current, evidence-based best practices
A glossary of adoption-friendly language
Discusses nursing practice within the context of a larger healthcare team

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