Background
In recent years, the healthcare sector has undergone a significant transformation due to advancements in science and technology. These developments have prompted significant changes in the healthcare sector, leading to new care delivery methods and adjustments in healthcare policies. These have made healthcare complex for the layman, making it difficult for the patient to obtain health-related information and make informed decisions, requiring someone with the knowledge to advocate for them. Due to the longer periods, nurses spend with their patients and their duty to care without causing harm.
As a result, nurses have a better chance of developing positive relationships with their patients and becoming patient advocates. Nursing advocacy was first introduced in the 1970s, when it was incorporated into professional codes by the International Council of Nurses (Abbasinia, Ahmadi, & Kazemnejad, 2020). Many nursing organizations worldwide, for instance, the American Nurses Association, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Japanese Nursing Association, and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Council, have incorporated the concept into their codes of ethics.
Advocacy is a crucial concept in healthcare, driving the provision of healthcare. Advocacy is vital in nursing practice, referring to the act of advocating for patients’ rights and interests. Advocacy is also vital in nursing as it promotes the patients’ well-being and ensures they receive high-quality care (Kwame & Petrucka, 2022). In hospitals, nurses are often the primary caregivers and patient advocates, playing a crucial role in ensuring that patients receive the best possible care.
The primary role of advocacy in nursing is to support and promote the patient’s interests by protecting their rights and recommending an appropriate course of action. Therefore, this paper aims to provide a concept analysis of advocacy in nursing by examining its uses in the profession, attributes, antecedents, consequences, and empirical methods to measure the concept’s effectiveness.
The Purpose of Advocacy in Nursing
Becoming the primary caregiver means that their patients receive the highest quality care possible. Advocacy in nursing is paramount because it ensures that patients’ needs are catered to and receive care aligned with their preferences, values, and goals. Nurses must advocate for patients and communicate their opinions, especially when patients cannot speak for themselves (Cheluvappa & Selvendran, 2022). This entails communicating with patients and their families, educating them about their kin’s conditions, and promoting shared decision-making.
The concept of advocacy also plays an important role in nursing, as nurses are responsible for ensuring that patient treatment, confidentiality, and privacy are protected. For advocacy to be effective in nursing, nurses must possess excellent communication skills, empathy, and an in-depth understanding of their patients’ needs. They must also proactively identify potential risks and take steps to prevent them. Also, they must be knowledgeable in their field to provide appropriate care and treatment.
Possible Definitions
Advocacy is a multifaceted concept and has been defined differently by different professions and scholars. The term is widely used in the legal profession and refers to representing in legal proceedings. The other area where the concept of advocacy is applicable is in the field of social work, where it is applied to support vulnerable people and communities. One of the notable definitions of the term “advocacy” in nursing is provided by the International Council of Nurses (ICN). The council defines advocacy as supporting and promoting the patient’s best interest (Abbasinia, Ahmadi & Kazemnejad, 2020).
The American Nurses Association, on the other hand, defines advocacy as the protection and support of individuals’ rights (Abbasinia, Ahmadi, & Kazemnejad, 2020). In the ordinary Oxford English Dictionary, the term advocacy has two meanings; one is in the context of public support for recommending a particular cause or policy.
In contrast, the other meaning refers to the profession of legal practice. McNeal, Smith, & Tontz (2019) define advocacy as “an act or the process of advocating, supporting, or recommending a cause or courses of action.” In nursing, these definitions indicate that advocacy stresses supporting and promoting the interests of patients by protecting their rights and ensuring appropriate courses of action.
Attributes
The concept of advocacy is considered to have several attributes that are vital to its meaning and application. In nursing, the attribute of patient-centeredness is closely linked to advocacy. Patient-centeredness is a critical attribute of nursing advocacy, focusing primarily on the needs and interests of both patients and nurses (Ozavci et al., 2022). Patient-centered care refers to an approach to healthcare where all decisions and actions taken by healthcare professionals consider the patient’s needs, preferences, and values.
Therefore, nurses apply the concept of advocacy to advocate for the needs and rights of these patients. By doing so, the nurses ensure that their patients’ interests are well cared for and treated with respect. The advocacy may take various forms and involve challenging traditional healthcare practices, advocating for healthcare policies that promote patient-centered care, and offering emotional support and resources to patients and their families.
Effective communication is also essential for advocacy in the healthcare sector. To protect patients’ interests and promote patient-centered care, nurses must communicate effectively with their patients, families, and other healthcare professionals to ensure they receive quality care. The concept of advocacy requires nurses to listen actively to patients and their relatives, communicate effectively with them, and provide valuable information that helps them make informed decisions about the care they need.
Effective communication is also crucial, as it can help patients understand complex medical information when it is simplified (Ozavci et al., 2022). Nurses with good communication skills can also advocate for patient preferences and rights to physicians, social workers, and other medical team members to guarantee their patients the best possible care.
Empathy is another important attribute of advocacy in the medical field, especially in nursing. Empathy involves understanding and sharing another person’s feelings, thoughts, and experiences. This attribute is essential for nurses to effectively advocate for their patients’ rights and needs. When nurses empathize with patients and their families, they establish trust and rapport, which are vital for effective communication and collaboration (Ozavci et al., 2022).
Through empathy, nurses can better understand their patients’ needs, preferences, and concerns and respond compassionately and patient-centredly. Another attribute of advocacy is the proactive development of knowledge and skills. Advocacy requires nurses to be proactive and able to identify potential risks, taking action to prevent them from occurring and ensuring patient protection. They also need to possess a high level of knowledge and skills to understand their patients’ conditions and provide appropriate care.
Case Analysis
Model Case
Mr James is a 40-year-old male patient admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. Mr James is confused and disoriented and has difficulty communicating with her nurse to share his needs. The patient’s family is not available to provide support, and the patient has no advance directive. The nurse assigned to the patient takes a proactive step, assesses his needs, communicates with him, and advocates for his rights and needs.
The nurse ensures that the patient receives the appropriate care that meets his needs, including administering antibiotics, oxygen therapy, and intravenous fluids. The nurse also ensures that James is comfortable by communicating effectively with him and has adequate pain control.
Similar Case
Mrs Jones is a 60-year-old female patient diagnosed with breast cancer. She is anxious about the scheduled surgery and the potential side effects associated with chemotherapy. The nurse assigned to her takes a proactive approach and advocates for her by providing her with knowledge about cancer surgery and chemotherapy, as well as emotional support to the patient. The nurse ensured that Mrs Jones’s patient-centred care met her needs. The nurse proactively communicates effectively with the surgical team about her patient’s fears to ensure she receives the best care possible. The nurse also advocates for the patient’s right to be engaged in decisions about their care and treatment.
Opposite Case
Mrs Brown is a 70-year-old patient admitted to the hospital with heart failure. She is unresponsive and unable to communicate her needs and preferences to the nurse. The nurse attached to her does not take any proactive approach to advocating and fails to advocate for his rights and interests. In addition, the nurse does not try to communicate with the healthcare team and fails to advocate for the patient’s rights and interests to ensure appropriate care. Consequently, the patient’s condition worsens, and he experiences preventable complications.
Antecedents and Consequences
Antecedents of advocacy in nursing can be defined as the factors that precede and influence the development of advocacy traits in nurses. One of the primary antecedents of advocacy in nursing is education and training (Tsimane & Downing, 2020). Nurses who undergo comprehensive training and know the nursing theory, ethics, and communication are likely to develop strong advocacy behaviors. A good foundation in nursing training enables nurses to understand the need to advocate for patient rights and develop practical communication skills to communicate assertively on their patients’ behalf.
Another antecedent of advocacy in nursing is professionalism. The nurses who view their profession as a calling are more likely to advocate for their patients’ needs and rights, as they are committed to their patients. Nurses committed to the profession are known for demonstrating empathy, respect, and compassion towards patients and upholding the ethical and legal responsibilities of the profession. Apart from professionalism and training, clinical experience is also an important antecedent of advocacy in nursing. Nurses who have served longer have extensive clinical experience and a better understanding of the healthcare system.
This may include the challenges they face as professionals and patients, as well as the possible barriers to receiving quality care. In addition, clinical experience allows nurses to recognize if the patient is not receiving the care they need and to advocate more effectively on behalf of the patient. Finally, ethical frameworks are also antecedents of advocacy in nursing. Nurses who have an in-depth understanding of ethical principles and frameworks applied in the profession are in a better position to recognize ethical issues in healthcare settings and to advocate for patient rights and needs.
Some of the consequences of advocacy in nursing include improved patient outcomes, increased patient satisfaction, and job satisfaction for the nurse. When nurses advocate for patients, they intend to help them by ensuring they receive high-quality care and are treated with respect and dignity. They also do this to ensure that patient rights are upheld and their needs and preferences are met (Hassen et al., 2022). The concept of advocacy can also result in a good relationship between the patient and the nurse, resulting in effective communication and collaboration between patients, families, and healthcare providers, resulting in high-quality patient care.
Empirical Methods
Measuring advocacy in nursing requires empirical methods that are reliable and valid. The patient satisfaction survey is one of the empirical methods that can be utilized to measure advocacy in nursing. This survey assesses patient satisfaction with the care they received and the extent to which nurses advocated for their needs and preferences. A patient survey is a useful tool because it provides direct feedback from the patient and can be utilized by management to determine areas where improvement is necessary (Florell, 2021). Observational studies are another empirical tool that can be utilized.
These studies involve observation of the level of interaction and behavior of nurses with patients and other healthcare workers to assess their advocacy. Observable studies are vital as they provide valuable information about the nurse, such as assertiveness, ability to advocate for their patients, and communication skills (Florell, 2021).
Finally, case studies are also vital for empirical nursing advocacy analysis. Case study analysis can be conducted by analyzing various cases where nurses advocate for their patients’ rights and interests. In addition, case studies can provide valuable information about a given advocacy behavior and strategies nurses use in different contexts.
References
Abbasinia, M., Ahmadi, F., & Kazemnejad, A. (2020). Patient advocacy in nursing: A concept analysis. Nursing ethics, 27(1), 141-151. Web.
Cheluvappa, R., & Selvendran, S. (2022). Palliative care nursing in Australia and the role of the registered nurse in palliative care. Nursing Reports, 12(3), 589-596. Web.
Florell, M. C. (2021). Concept analysis of nursing activism. Nursing forum (Vol. 56, No. 1, pp. 134-140). Web.
Hassen, A., Abozied, A. M., Mahmoud, E. M., & El-Guindy, H. A. (2022). Mental health nurses’ knowledge regarding patients’ rights and patients’ advocacy. NILES Journal for Geriatric and Gerontology, 5(2), 307-324. Web.
Kwame, A., & Petrucka, P. M. (2022). Universal healthcare coverage, patients’ rights, and nurse-patient communication: a critical review of the evidence. BMC Nursing, 21(1), 1-9. Web.
McNeal, G., Smith, T. C., & Tontz, P. (2019). Serving those who serve their country: Preparing military veterans for nursing degrees. Journal of Nursing Education, 58(8), 444-453. Web.
Ozavci, G., Bucknall, T., WoodwardâKron, R., Hughes, C., Jorm, C., & Manias, E. (2022). Towards patient-centered communication in the management of older patients’ medications across transitions of care: A focused ethnographic study. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 31(21-22), 3235-3249. Web.
Tsimane, T. A., & Downing, C. (2020). Transformative learning in nursing education: a concept analysis. International journal of nursing sciences, 7(1), 91-98. Web.