Advocacy is the best strategy to promote and access quality healthcare services to patients in hospitals or any other public health facility. Adopting the health care advocacy model is essential as it identifies emerging health issues for patients’ care to be improved. The advocacy model helps patients make an informed decisions regarding their health (Rose, 2017). The translation of medical terms is as well another importance of advocacy for patients’ care. Advocacy helps in the navigation of complicated medical systems. Nurses, due to higher levels of interaction with patients, have preferred to be advocates.
Nurses play crucial roles in advocacy models and they have helped patients. They hold rallies and seminars for different community groups and share helpful information concerning the strategy. Most nurses usually advocate for the families of the patients with complications with their health (Prestia & Dress, 2020). More impressively, they help patients express their thoughts and decisions and help them arrive at final decisions. Nurses worldwide have preserved human dignity through the support and care they give to patients in their line of duty. According to an analysis done by Prestia and Dress (2020), helping patients achieve quality service in health care facilities is their duty, and they have been dedicated.
I was involved in patient advocacy when one of the patients received an inaccurate diagnosis from the doctor. The patient was completely suffering from a heart attack, but the doctor described the patient’s pain to be caused by acid indigestion as per the doctor, the patient’s condition was worsening, and after close interaction with the patient, it was clear he was suffering from a heart attack. Still, during the first diagnosis, the doctor was reluctant to do that, but through advocacy, I advocated between the patient and doctor to carry out a second diagnosis checkup, and it was confirmed the patient was suffering from a heart attack. The repercussions for the patient lacking an advocate could make the person die as heart attack is a dangerous illness and has caused deaths to those suffering from the disease.
References
Abbasinia, M., Ahmadi, F., & Kazemnejad, A. (2020). Patient advocacy in nursing: A concept analysis. Nursing Ethics, 27(1), 141-151.
Prestia, A. S., & Dyess, S. M. (2020). Losing sight: the importance of nurse leaders’ maintaining patient and staff advocacy. Nurse Leader, 18(4), 329-332.
Rose, S. L., Highland, J., Karafa, M. T., & Joffe, S. (2017). Patient advocacy organizations, industry funding, and conflicts of interest. JAMA Internal Medicine 177(3), 344-350.
