NRS 430 Topic 5 DQ 2 Discuss the importance of advocacy as it pertains to patient care

NRS 430 Topic 5 DQ 2 Discuss the importance of advocacy as it pertains to patient care

NRS 430 Topic 5 DQ 2 Discuss the importance of advocacy as it pertains to patient care

Discuss the importance of advocacy as it pertains to patient care. What is the nurse’s role in patient advocacy? Describe a situation in which you were involved with patient advocacy. Explain what the advocacy accomplished for the patient, and what the repercussions would have been if the patient would not have had an advocate.

Re: Topic 5 DQ 2

Advocates are people who speak on behalf of those whose voices are not heard. For nurses, this may involve advocating for children, mentally ill patients, and patients who are uninformed about health care policies and their own rights. There are different ways that nurses can advocate for a patient for example: nurses can advocate for better treatment, social services, legal and payment options for a patient if we believe that patient is being treated unfair. Patient advocacy is a key part of nursing practice, and it isn’t optional. It’s included in the American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics, which states: “The nurse promotes, advocates for, and protects the rights, health, and safety of the patient” (2015, p.1).

Nurse professionals need to engage in leadership, problem solving, and communication skills to succeed in patient advocacy. We can achieve these skills by getting an advanced nursing degree, such as an on line BSN or Master of Science in Nursing (MSN). A 33 year old Spanish speaking female was admitted to my floor for elevated liver enzymes, she arrived at the ED complaining of itchinesses all over her body, to her surprise, after some tests were completed she found out she had a malignant tumor in her liver, having a 4 week old new born at home and two other little children this was devastating news for her. Minutes after she received all this information security asked her husband to leave, since he was there already one hour, according to the new visit schedules due to covid, visitors are allowed to stay only one hour. I realized she needed her husband’s support, I spoke with my nurse manger to allow them more time and I got the approval. I was very happy to be able to accomplish this for my patient. If I did not speak with the nurse manager and do this my patient would have been left alone to deal with this tremendous situation. No hug from a nurse could compare to the love and affection from their own family.

Nurses are needed now more than ever to help patients navigate the complex, growing health care industry. As an advocate the nurse must alert the doctor, medical facility or nurses in charge in order to resolve any issues that might arrive during the patient stay at the hospital.

References

American Nurses Association. Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. Silver Spring, MD: Nursebooks.org, 2015

RESPOND HERE

Indeed, this is an interesting work Monica. You have clearly identified the advocacy roles of nurses and also indicated the essence of advocacy in nursing practice and I mostly agree with you. On that note, it is important to acknowledge that nurses are the health care providers who spend more time with patients and they understand patients better than other providers. Therefore, they are better placed to advocate for patients. The advocacy involves various aspects including ensuring holistic and patient-centered care, and also intervening for patients. Advocacy is vital in ensuring protection of the patients’ best interest, integrating the patients and families in their health care plans, and helping the patients to make informed decisions in various health care issues. Nurses play vital roles in patient advocacy such as assisting the patients to understand complex medical issues, taking active role in ensuring that the concerns of patients are addressed, and getting the knowledge of current health care practices to improve the patient outcomes (Shannon, 2016).

References

Shannon, S. E. (2016). The nurse as the patient’s advocate: A contrarian view. Hastings Center Report, 46, S43-S47.

Re: Topic 5 DQ 2

The importance of advocacy as it pertains to patient care is a huge part of a nurse’s job, and it’s called for by codes of ethics from both the American Nurses Association and the International Council of Nurses (Stasik 2020). The nurse’s role is to advocate on the patient’s behalf and to assist in maintaining the patients’ rights and fair treatment. Nurses must allow the patients to advocate for themselves and educate them appropriately. The nurses act as an advocate between the patient and the processes and system.

Nurses must listen to their patients to be able to advocate for them appropriately. Nurses must keep in mind the level of education of a patient, their cultural background, and speak respectfully to their patient to be a successful advocate. With the field of nursing rapidly changing and covid 19 progressively affecting many patients the need for advocacy has been stronger than ever. I was a medical proxy for a patient admitted with covid 19 in respiratory failure. The patient was on a vent and the hospital was not doing all that was needed in the best interest of the patient due to her not being able to make her needs known. The patient was nonverbal and intellectually disabled. After I received the call the patient was being treated and the hospital wanted to make the patient DNR I stepped in to advocate. The patient received blood plasma and progressively recovered. If the patient did not have me advocate for her she would not have survived in my professional opinion.

References

Stasik, S. (n.d.). Patient advocacy and the nurse’s role. Travel Nursing Jobs | RN Nursing Specialties Jobs. https://www.nursechoice.com/traveler-resources/the-role-of-a-nurse-in-patient-advocacy/

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RESPOND 

This is a great work Ross. It is true that the essence of advocacy is an integral part of nursing practice and the role of advocacy is centered on ensuring that the rights of the patients is maintained and also accorded fair treatment health care provision. Moreover, patient advocacy is crucial in fostering patient safety and quality care which entails various aspects such as acting as patients’ voice, safeguarding patients, patient education, delivery of quality care, and ensuring interpersonal relationship with the patient. However, despite the essence of nursing roles in patients’ advocacy in health care, there are several barriers that impede this advocacy in clinical practice (Dadzie & Aziato, 2020). These barriers include work overload, challenges in communicating with healthcare providers or patients, lack of institutional support, poor decision making ability. These barriers tend to create hurdles for nurses to realize their responsibility as defenders of patients.

References

Dadzie, G., & Aziato, L. (2020). Perceived Interpersonal and Institutional Challenges to Patient Advocacy in Clinical Nursing Practice: A Qualitative Study from Ghana. International Journal of Health Professions, 7(1), 45-52.

Re: Topic 5 DQ 2

As nurses, it is our duty is to advocate for all the patient that we provide care for by providing support, education and answer questions the patient may have so that they are able to make their own decisions. Not all patients are able to make a medical decision due to a rapid change in condition or emergent situation, and it is when the nurse should act within the professional ethics and collaborate with the provider regarding the patient condition for early interventions. “Advocacy is generally described as defending the rights and property of others in nursing, a patient representative, defending the patient’s rights and universal rights, protecting the interests of the patient, contributing to decision-making and supporting the patient’s decisions ethical-centred skills for the ‘professional self, and ‘being a voice for the vulnerable” (Davoodvand, et al. 2016).

One situation I can recall is coming on to my shift in the ER and having a patient who apparently was stable through the previous shift and was ready for discharge. The patient had a cardiac history, I went to cycle the vital signs before discharging patient, and the patient was asymptomatic with a BP in the 80s. I asked the patient how he was feeling, made sure the patient was safe and right away related the information to the provider who quickly jumped off from her chair and started to give orders. After a few interventions, the patient’s blood pressure bearling improved and was started on pressors and admitted to the ICU. If I would not have advocated for my patient and intervened, he could have become symptomatic and things could have gotten bad real fast and I would have been part of a code.

Refrences

Davoodvand, S., Abbaszadeh, A., & Ahmadi, F. (2016, June 11). Patient advocacy from the clinical nurses’ viewpoint: a qualitative study. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4958925/.

RESPOND HERE

This is an exceptional work Bonnie. Indeed, it is the responsibility of nurses to advocate for the best interest of their patients to help them in making informed decisions and contribute to the overall health care outcomes. However, despite the established positive results of patient advocacy in health care such as ensuring protection of patients’ values, rights, and interests, nurses should always be aware of the potential implications associated with patient advocacy as they may experience varied consequences for challenging the health care system. The implications of patient advocacy have been attributed to positive outcomes at micro-social and macro-social levels. At the micro-social level, patients tend to enjoy autonomy and freedom of self-determination, well informed, and capable of making informed decisions. At the macro-social level, patient advocacy actions tend to inform changes in policies and how the manner of organizing institutions leading to enhanced care delivery for the larger society.  However, from the nurses standpoint, they are at risk of being blamed for poor colleagues, insubordination, portraying poor image of nursing profession, and even be dismissed and suffer from disturbance of personal lives (Tomaschewski-Barlem, Lunardi & Barlem, 2017).

References

Tomaschewski-Barlem, J. G., Lunardi, V. L., & Barlem, E. L. D. (2017). Patient advocacy in nursing: Barriers, facilitators and potential implications. Texto Contexto Eneferm, 26, 1-7.