The Impact of Nursing Advocacy in Promoting Patient Well-Being

By Your Health Magazine

Some patients only have what you give them. They aren’t always in a position to advocate for themselves. Sometimes, this is a result of their frailty. They aren’t strong enough to insist on what they want. Other times, it’s a matter of ignorance. They may know what outcome they want, but they lack the ability to communicate it in medical terms.

Nurses are important lifelines. They serve as advocates, helping patients get higher levels of care while also ensuring that the patient is an informed and consenting party every step of the way. In this article, we take a look at how nursing advocacy helps patients achieve better results.

What Does Patient Advocacy Mean?

In this context, patient advocacy mostly means helping the patient get what they want. That won’t always mean advocating for what the nurse thinks is best. One of the most important things a nurse can do is to help make sure that the patient retains as much of their autonomy as possible.

It’s very hard to feel powerful when you need the help of a stranger to walk six steps into the bathroom. Advocacy from a nurse or other care provider should be leveraged in a way that gives the patient as much power as possible.

Not only does this align with the nurse’s responsibility to their patients, but it can also help improve outcomes. People who feel like they have some control over the care they receive may experience improved results.

It’s a small but important way to make sure that every patient receives the highest possible level of care.

What Does Patient Advocacy Look Like?

At the most fundamental level, patient advocacy simply means vocalizing what the patient wants. Sometimes, it means vocalizing it rather insistently. In most cases, there won’t be an ensuing argument or fight. Most doctors want to make sure that their patients fully consent to and understand the treatment path they are about to go down.

Most family members also want to make sure that they are behaving in a way that their loved one is ok with. Insurance companies—well. Who knows what they want?

But in the best-case scenarios, patient advocacy quickly brings everyone onto the same page. Every once in a while, further discussion is required.

This may mean standing your ground, insisting either on the care route or personal boundaries vocalized by the patient. This isn’t always easy. It is, however, an important part of what it means to be a nurse.

Advocating with Family Members

“Family,” sometimes has an almost negative connotation in the healthcare setting. Doctors and nurses know and appreciate the fact that a strong support system can help patients go through difficult medical moments. They also routinely experience the challenges that an overly involved family member can produce.

Sometimes patients feel the same way. They don’t want their sister visiting every afternoon. They don’t want their son arguing with the doctor. But they also don’t know what to do about it. This is their family, after all. They can’t just kick them out of the hospital.

Nurses can. And they sometimes will, at the request of a patient who doesn’t feel comfortable speaking up for themselves.

Nurses can work with patients to establish and enforce clear boundaries with all visitors. This helps to ensure that the patient gets the privacy they desire without ruffling any feathers.

Advocating with Insurance

Nurses do not typically communicate directly with insurance companies. However, they can help the patient speak with their provider more effectively. It’s no secret that most insurance companies like collecting premiums more than they do issuing copays.

There are endless examples of times in which insurance companies have tried to refuse to pay for procedures that are needed and certainly within the perimeters of the patient’s coverage terms.

Nurses can help patients understand the procedure and advise them on how to explain it to the insurance company.

Often, insurance companies are happy to pay for a procedure today if it can prevent two procedures tomorrow.

Advocating with Other Caregivers

This, undoubtedly, is the most uncomfortable direction patient advocacy can take you. Ideally, everyone on the hospital staff is going to be on the same page in terms of how to administer care to the patient.

Sometimes, that’s not how it goes. In these situations, your responsibility is not to have some sort of big, cinematic argument with the doctor. It is to clearly state what the patient wants, and make sure everyone on the care team understands why.

Naturally, most times, the route the doctor wants to take will probably be better long-term for the patient. In these situations, patient advocacy gives everyone on the care team an opportunity to sit down with the patient, explain their options, and get everyone on the same page.

Here’s a simple example. A woman goes into labor. She is having a very hard time with the pain. She wants a natural birth. The doctor feels that she would benefit from an epidural. The nurse understands everyone’s perspective.

They can help supervise a productive conversation in which the doctor understands the woman’s perspective, and the woman understands the benefits of an epidural.

Does she take the painkiller? That’s not up to the nurse. The nurse’s job is simply to help facilitate the conversation.

It won’t always be that harmonious or ideal. The job of an advocate is not necessarily to force everyone around them into doing what they thing is best. It is to communicate clearly and effectively. Accomplish that and you will have done right by your patient.

Conclusion

Outside the hospital, there are other ways to advocate for patients. Policy initiatives that provide patients with more choices, or more affordable avenues for healthcare. Nurses who care about patient advocacy may wish to take their passion one step further by getting politically involved.

It’s just another way to help ensure patients have options that they are happy with.