NURS 430 Discuss Importance Of Advocacy As It Pertains To Patient Care

NURS 430 Discuss Importance Of Advocacy As It Pertains To Patient Care

The nurse communicates the patients’ requirements to multiple interdisciplinary teams. Nurses help patients make educated decisions about their health and well-being. is crucial because it helps to limit the possibility of errors and patient damage. If a problem emerges, nurses should advocate for their patients and work with the healthcare team. We must allow patients to express their worries while also keeping them updated on therapy and processes. The interaction between nurses and patients has the potential to influence patient outcomes. Nurses can advocate in the healthcare system with improved interpersonal skills, provisional skills, and communication skills. For example, a patient asked me to notify the provider that she needs physiotherapy.

Nurses advocate for improved patient communication with all members of the healthcare team. Nurses can advocate for better health care, legal options, and payment options. Nurses can speak on behalf of patients who are too shy or afraid to ask questions. A nurse must be able to solve complex problems and have excellent communication and organizational skills. Nurses assist patients in communicating with doctors in order to obtain the information they require to make healthcare decisions. These include doctor’s appointments, medical tests, and social support. The patient’s thoughts and wishes are taken into account when making treatment decisions. Advocating for people with altered mental status in a medical surgical unit is extremely difficult.

I recently worked on a case in a medical surgical unit where a patient was admitted for some tests and procedures. A nurse discovered a small wound between his buttocks that is tunneling inside during a skin swarm. Following that, the incision was cleaned and antibiotics were administered. According to the doctor’s note, the nurse discovered this wound during her initial assessment. The wound could have gotten worse if the nurse hadn’t discovered and reported it.

Discuss the significance of advocacy in patient care. What is the role of the nurse in patient advocacy? Describe a time when you were involved in patient advocacy. Explain what the advocacy accomplished for the patient, as well as the consequences if the patient had not 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

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RESPOND HERE

Monica, this is a fascinating piece of work. You have clearly identified nurses’ advocacy roles as well as the importance of advocacy in nursing practice, and I mostly agree with you. On that note, it is critical to recognize that nurses spend the most time with patients and understand them better than other health care providers. As a result, they are better equipped to advocate for patients. Advocacy entails a variety of activities, such as ensuring holistic and patient-centered care and intervening on behalf of patients. Advocacy is critical in protecting patients’ best interests, integrating patients and families into their health care plans, and assisting patients in making informed decisions about various health care issues. Nurses play critical roles in patient advocacy, such as assisting patients in understanding complex medical issues, taking an active role in ensuring that patients’ concerns are addressed, and learning about current health care practices to improve 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.

 

RESPOND TO ROSS

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

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

I remember beginning my shift in the ER with a patient who appeared to have been stable throughout the previous shift and was ready for discharge. Before discharging the patient, I went to cycle the vital signs, and the patient was asymptomatic with a blood pressure in the 80s. I asked the patient how he was feeling, double-checked that he was safe, and immediately relayed the information to the provider, who jumped out of her chair and began issuing orders. After a few interventions, the patient’s blood pressure bearling improved, and he was started on pressors and admitted to the ICU. If I hadn’t advocated and intervened for my patient, he could have become symptomatic and things could have gotten really bad really quickly, and I would have been part of a code.

References

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 TO BONNIE 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.