9). A. Davis. In contrast, conflict is addressed in three ways in positive, healthy marriages. Validators talk their problems out expressing emotions and opinions, and are skilled at reaching a compromise. Volatiles are two partners who view each other as equals, as they engage in loud, passionate, explosive interactions that are balanced by a caring, loving relationship. Their conflicts do not include the four negative characteristics identified earlier. The last type of couples is the Avoiders.

For example, charting by exception focuses on the physical care of the individual and does not address the whole family or members of families. Likewise, the medical and nursing diagnostic systems used in health care are disease centered, and diseases are focused on individuals and 16 Foundations in Family Health Care Nursing have limited diagnostic codes that pertain to the family as a whole. To complicate matters further, most insurance companies require that there be one identified patient, with a diagnostic code drawn from an individual disease perspective.

In this approach, all members of the family are in the foreground, and individuals are not mutually exclusive of the whole. The family is seen as the sum of individual family members, and the focus concentrates on each individual. Each person is assessed, and health care is provided for all family members. The family unit is not necessarily the primary consideration in providing care, however. Family care physicians provide the impetus for this approach to family care in community settings, but nurses and nurse practitioners (NPs) are also involved with this approach.