Advanced Family Nursing with the Control-Congruence Model

This article describes family nursing with the control-congruence model (CC-model) developed at Wayne State University. The model is appropriate for clinical nurse specialists of all nursing disciplines who assist families to improve functioning together in order to cope with stress. Nursing care focuses on four dimensions of family functioning: system maintenance; system change; togetherness; and individuation. Two assessment tools are used: the assessment of strategies in families--functioning, which measures the emphasis on each of the four dimensions and the assessment of strategies in families--satisfaction, which assesses the satisfaction with family functioning. The paper cites four cases, one relative to each dimension, with examples of nursing care aimed at strengthening effective family strategies and introducing new behaviors. The examples include the interpretation of assessment of strategies in families scores before and after treatment.