Patient Advocacy Paper

In Nursing, there will always be instances where the patient's nurse needs to advocate for their patient. There are numerous reasons why a nurse would advocate for their patient ranging from getting the doctor to change the patient’s orders, helping the patient’s treatment team understand what it is the patient is requiring for the day, to expressing the patient’s last wishes before death. In every situation, the nurse should do what is in the patient’s best interest. Tomajan (2012), “Advocacy skills are the ability to successfully support a cause or interest on one’s own behalf or that of another. Advocacy requires a set of skills that include problem solving, communication, influence, and collaboration”(p. 2). With those skills, the

Also communication and involve people and reinforcing the changes are very important strategies of advocacy (Grand Canyon University, 2011). When the nurses choose to take on the role of

Nursing is defined as the promotion, protection and the prevention of illness and Injury, the treatment of a patient’s disease or diseases, the patient’s response to a disease, as well as one big thing that nurses are known for, and that is being a patient’s advocate nursing has been one of the fastest growing fields since the 1990’s (Mueller et al.,2012). Advocacy is defined as an action in which a person speaks out, argues a cause, supports and defends on the behalf of others. I believe that the role of being a patient advocate is one of the most important things a nurse can do because there are many patients that cannot speak on their behalf, I believe that it is up to the nurses to be those patients as well as all patient’s voices (Mueller et al., 2012).

Nurses have a strong say in what direction their profession is headed. More nurses are filling leadership roles in the healthcare profession every year. No one plays a more critical role in developing the capacity and capability for professional advocacy than do nursing educators who model advocacy behaviors in both education and practice standards. (Tomajan, 2013) Nursing educators seize the opportunity to apply their leadership skills and help create a better image of nursing, by creating nurses who apply their knowledge to everyday activities, which results in a better patient experience and a less

The concept of patient advocacy was the focus of the article entitled, “Developing a mid –range theory of patient advocacy through concept analysis” by Xiaoyan Bu and Mary Ann Jezewski published in the Journal of Advanced Nursing 2007. In an attempt to clarify the definition as well as the refine the concept of patient advocacy, the authors synthesized advocacy in nursing literature and sought with this information to establish a theoretical basis for future studies on patient

The Tennessee Nurses Association has a goal to enhance nurse advocacy. For a nurse to practice advocacy for patients, one must understand the importance. Research had to be done to determine what the nurses were expected to advocate for their patients. Choi, Pin-Pin, and Mei-che Pang (2014) conducted a study to discover how the nurses integrate the advocacy. Choi, Pin-pin, Cheung, and Mei-che Pang’s discovered that nurses are a huge part of recognizing safety concerns and health changes for patients throughout their hospital stay (Para. 5).

The patient freedom act is a bill proposed to replace and appeal certain mandates under the patient protection and affordable care act. This bill was proposed in January by four Republican senators: Bill Cassidy, Susan Collins, Shelley Moore and Johnny Isakson. This bill is one of the many attempts this year to repeal and replace Obamacare. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has included Medicaid expansion, the individual mandate requiring health insurance, minimum insurance standards which required insurance to provide mental health, maternity, and emergency room visits to be provided on every plan,age-based premiums and also requiring that insurance companies provide coverage without regarding pre-existing health condition as

Advocacy is the active support of an idea or cause expressed through strategies and methods that influence the opinions and decisions of people and organizations (Buckley, n.d). Professional nurses have a long history of struggling to deliver patient care against multiple barriers, including dwindling resources. As we speed into the current century, the struggle is increasing in complexity. This struggle affects not only individual nurses, but also patients, organizations, and the nursing profession. Nurses’ strong commitment to patient care and their role as patient advocates often places them in direct conflict with administrators of health care organizations (Green & Jordan, 2004).

An article written by Robert Hanks (2012b) from The University of Texas at Health Science School of Nursing titled “Practical Approaches to Patient Advocacy Barriers” highlights the key components of the nurse’s responsibilities regarding patient advocacy. Dr. Hanks (2012b) determined that “only the patient can decide what is in the patient’s best interest and the role of the nurse is to then support the decision-making process.” A therapeutic relationship and effective communication between the nurse and the patient is essential to ensure quality of care. The nurse must support the patient in making their own decisions pertaining to their care, speak on behalf of the patient to communicate the patient’s choices for care, as well as act

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is also called the Affordable Care Act, H.R. 3590, and ObamaCare Bill. President Barack Obama signed this into law on March 23, 2010 and it was upheld by the Supreme Court on June 28, 2012. One of the main goals of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is to reform the health care system and provide service at lower costs as well as ensuring that all American citizens will have access to health insurance that is affordable. Many Americans who are unemployed and/or working low paying jobs have benefitted from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This paper will attempt to briefly describe the key features of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, review some historical developments, and explain some of the influences that helped to shape this act as well as describing some of the pros and cons of the act.

In the first assignment, the paper discussed a major topic in Health Care Reform. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010, that was signed into the legislature by President Barack Obama, a Democratic representative. The article expounded on the challenges with implementing the PPACA, the policy modification that had positive and negative impacts on the use of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and finally the use of the constitution to achieve the goals necessary to please Congress.

Individuals involved in political action are often looked at as advocates, moreover, nurses specifically have a role in advocating for the marginalized, disenfranchised, and vulnerable populations. The impact nursing has on political action dates back to “the 1960s and 1970s with the push for women’s rights and issues surrounding consumer rights” (Mason, et al., 2016, p. 31). Nurses became known as advocates for their patients which physicians interpreted to going against what they felt to be in the best interest of the patient’s health. The nurses were not carrying out the orders physicians gave, stating they were advocating for their patients. With the movement of nurses advocating for their patients, that opened the doors for an opportunity where nurses could begin practicing autonomously and establishing nursing as a profession. Some states have gone so far as to defining, within their nurse practice act, how nurses will advocate for their patients, nursing, and the health care field (Mason, et al., 2016, p. 32). Quality of a great advocate include, feeling empathy towards the patient, situation, or issue. As you learn to empathize, you become passionate about the situation and/or issue (e.g. health disparity), thus becoming engaged in the situation. As nurses, we are extremely passionate about what we do. This leads us to tap into our moral compass and how we identify with the patient, situation, or

1a. What model of healthcare does the US and your chosen country have (Japan)? Be very specific.

When it comes to patient care, nurses play a critical role in the health care system that is simply just not replaceable. As Maya Angelou says, “they may forget your name, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” Nurses interact so closely with patients every day and spend the most time with them and their families. But nursing not only involves delivering care, it also involves patient advocacy. Demonstrating advocacy in nursing practice is necessary for providing effective care because it allows for development of a strong nurse-patient interpersonal relationship, which is needed to support the patient and promote healing. Nurses can demonstrate advocacy to help enhance this relationship by helping protect patient privacy, speaking

Political activism is an important complement for nurses in the clinical practice. Nurses are in an exceptional position not only to provide quality bed side care to their patients but also to advocate for change within the community and political field. Common problem affecting a group of people can be a political issue. Identifying the cause of this issue and advocating to solve the root cause with the help of decision makers like politicians, hospital executives, managers or government bureaucrats, nurses can bring beneficial changes in Canadian Health care system.