Definition of the Topic
Nurses are superheroes in healthcare because they provide patient care, seek justice, and support vulnerable individuals through their day-to-day work in clinical settings. Nursing advocacy refers to the nurses’ role in protecting patients’ rights, welfare, health, and safety (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2019). For advocacy to work, a relationship between nurses and patients must be established around a critical aspect of healthcare. Patients who perceive that nurses wish them well tend to trust the guidance they receive in their clinical prescriptions and other metrics. Nurses must understand their role in advocating for patients’ needs, which requires applying leadership skills and adhering to ethical standards guided by core competencies in healthcare matters (Nitzky, 2021).
Evolution of Nursing Advocacy and Examples
How Nursing Advocacy Evolved
In nursing advocacy, the process helps speak, identify a cause, and write in favor of patients’ issues that may affect their welfare. Advocacy is more of interceding on behalf of the patient. The active part of nursing advocacy has existed for a long while.
At first, people thought collaboration entailed offering moral good or any concern that may adversely impact the patient. The lack of universal agreement on advocacy led to controversy, debate, and contention. In the last two decades, many nursing organizations have highlighted that patient advocacy should entail better hospital conditions for patients and an improved nursing work environment (Zwinkels, 2019). In that case, many governments were influenced to improve care for sick people and to drive policies that embrace positive encounters between nurses and patients. The advancement of nursing advocacy led physicians and philanthropists to adopt, raise awareness, and address adverse issues.
Nursing advocacy was adopted in American healthcare settings many years ago. It was first utilized in the International Council of Nurses (ICN) in 1973 (Bradley-Levine, 2021). The American Nurses Association (ANA) later stated that high-quality nursing practices must include patient advocacy to achieve safety. Since then, advocacy has become an integral component of nursing ethics, underpinning the philosophical principles of professional nursing.
However, the concept was first described by the nursing professional Florence Nightingale in the 19th century (Nitzky, 2021). She committed herself to learning about patient care and pursued a healthcare course that led her to become a nurse. While working as a nurse, she developed practical skills and identified various qualifications and functions to care for patients while factoring in everyone’s fundamental human rights. Through her nursing skills, many people realized that caring needed more attention in solving social issues (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2019). She highlighted that ignorance by nursing professionals would lead to the death of innocent patients who may technically die from a mistake that would be controlled. From Nightingale, patient advocacy grew and emerged as an ethical paradigm in healthcare.
Examples of Nursing Advocacy
Patient advocacy involves championing social justice for patients. It calls for equal and accurate healthcare services for every patient, without basing any determination on personal characteristics, ethnicity, status, lack of education, or exposure. Nurses have used advocacy to champion fair treatment that is not affected by ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, or educational level.
For example, if a hospitalized individual is inaccurately diagnosed or is in an unsafe accommodation, a nurse must communicate the issue to the doctor or colleagues to address it. The reason is that if the nurse does not report the mistake for rectification, a medical facility may face liabilities, leading to legal action to correct the same (Zwinkels, 2019). Significantly, a patient may suffer at the hands of caregivers; thus, advocating for their rights while under care saves lives and prevents further exacerbations, which may lead to poor living conditions. On that note, nursing advocacy may be particularly effective in helping the patient recover if a nurse champions a probable social justice cause.
The other type of advocacy entails mediating between patients and physicians by focusing on the concerns that arise during care. Listening to patients’ anxieties is key to their recovery journey, as at that time they feel vulnerable, and that is where advocacy comes in to ensure their concerns are considered (Bradley-Levine, 2021). For example, a nurse may stay in a room when a doctor discusses treatment or a prescription with a patient. Through that, the patient benefits, as they are helped to ask questions or find answers to a particular matter (Nitzky, 2021). Therefore, a patient may be able to understand medical terms during the event. Other related examples include explaining to patients how the healthcare system works and when their consent is required for certain procedures.
Appropriating responsibility to a patient is another example of advocacy, realized through educating patients about various issues in a care setting. A nurse is expected to help patients learn various metrics, facts, and ideas about healthcare matters; hence, they can do so through advocacy (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2019). That includes, but is not limited to, helping a patient understand how to manage a current medical condition, how to deal with chronic issues, how to improve their daily life, how to manage different treatments, and the proper way to take medications when ill. These duties involve nurses significantly, and they are one way to achieve advocacy, since patient care is the key concern nurses should prioritize in their profession.
It is essential to value any decision a patient makes for their health. That involves protecting patient rights in care, where a nurse knows what information a patient must have and why (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2019). The decisions require a legal understanding of how a doctor should interact with a patient.
For instance, nurses help patients communicate a decision made to them if they appear upset or disagree with the decision. That may include engaging a family member about the diagnosis and showing them the importance of the decision so that a holistic approach can be taken (Natal, 2022). Thus, all these examples are part of nursing advocacy and should be practiced in clinical settings.
The Role of Advocacy in the Nursing Profession
Benefits for Nurses
When nurses advocate for the safety and wellness of patients, they play a role in improving their work environment, which requires high standards and regulations in the delivery of medical services. Safer environments for medical work mean nurses can avoid personal or group liabilities. When working conditions are improved through advocacy, they establish required standards for clinical duties (Natal, 2022).
A heavy workload for a nurse lowers their capacity to offer high levels of care in a given hospital. The clinical delivery of services ensures that nurses find the confidence and pleasure to work in hospitals. Through that, the nursing experience becomes positive and leads to motivation and the maintenance of ethical principles for nurses.
Finding space to advocate for patients is relevant to nurses because it makes them pertinent to their profession. A nurse’s primary role is to offer patient care by following the doctor’s guidelines and measures that lead to recovery from a medical condition. With more than 71,000 patient advocates working in the US, nurses can use them as role models and make that a mandatory factor in their work (Natal, 2022).
The existence of many healthcare advocates is a matter that shows relevance in a hospital setting. Thus, following care principles that are enabled through advocacy is key to attaining the main objective of a nurse. To show importance and relevance, many companies sponsor advocacy in health, with 67% of patient advocates admitting they get funding from profit and non-profit organizations (Bradley-Levine, 2021). Therefore. A nurse will be relevant and undertake their duties professionally and corporately, which builds a strong reputation in the profession.
Benefits to Patients
A patient’s life can be saved when nursing advocacy is embraced in healthcare. 52% of US patients cannot circumnavigate healthcare difficulty unless they are helped by a nurse (Zwinkels, 2019). The reason is that a nurse will prevent any occasion that may facilitate mortality. For instance, if a prescription is made but risks the patient’s life, a nurse will enlighten the responsible parties, which means better patient living standards. Another important aspect of nursing advocacy for patients is that they get the knowledge that offers them a chance to understand healthcare metrics and, thus, determine their course of action (Natal, 2022). A patient educated through advocacy can decide appropriately without unnecessary friction, which might limit their recovery.
Advocacy is key to avoiding high exacerbations, treatment expenses, and admissions to hospitals for patients. The reason is that a person will get the standard medical prescription, which enables catering to their illness and chronic conditions(Stanhope & Lancaster, 2019). Proper medical delivery of services decreases the chances of hospitalizations; thus, the time and money required are reduced. That is an advantage to a patient as it will play an integral part in their well-being, hence the relevance and importance of advocacy.
Conclusion
Nursing advocacy entails apprising responsibilities to patients, championing social justice, mediating with patients by giving their voice over particular issues, safeguarding patient care, and valuing any decision we make to protect patients’ well-being. An example of nursing advocacy is when nurses identify an issue that is inappropriately undertaken to a patient and communicate that immediately to the doctor in charge or care facility officials. Moreover, a nurse may educate a patient about a medical issue that might entail their decisions for enabling treatment.
Nursing advocacy is essential because it offers a better working environment for nurses and assures patients of safety regarding their medical conditions. Furthermore, many advocates have ventured into healthcare and delivered medical services to high standards. Advocacy gives a person a better chance of achieving their health benefits.
References
Bradley-Levine, J. (2021). The importance of advocacy. Promoting Teacher Advocacy as Critical Teacher Leadership, 3(7), 3–17.
Natal, E. (2022). Effective advocacy for nursing. Gastroenterology Nursing, 45(6), 459–460.
Nitzky, A. (2021). Six ways nurses can advocate for patients. Oncology Nursing News.
Stanhope, M., & Lancaster, J. (2019). Public health nursing: Population-centered health care in the community (10th ed.). Elsevier.
Zwinkels, H. (2019). Advocacy and the perspective of (neurology) nursing. Advocacy in Neurology, 2(5), 89–96.