Patient Advocacy

What? Advocacy, according to Merriam Webster, is the “active support of an idea or cause, especially the act of pleading or arguing for something.” This definition gives us the foundation of patient advocacy. Based on this definition, we could say that patient advocacy means actively supporting, pleading, or arguing for our patients.

So What? So why is patient advocacy so important? Why do we, as nurses carry the responsibility of acting as patient advocates? As nurses, we often serve as liaisons in a multidisciplinary team. We speak to doctors, therapists (PT, OT, ST, RT, etc.), family and friends, and other health care providers to share assessments and suggestions. We are asked questions- sometimes, a lot of questions. We assume the role as patient advocate for patients who are unconscious, obtunded, confused, being pressured by family/friends, or are otherwise unable to advocate for themselves.

Now what? Any nurse serving any patient population should expect to serve as a patient advocate. Additionally, we need to understand the responsibility befalls us as advocates. Patients and their families use information from nurses to make critical decisions, sometimes involving life and death situations. It is important that we do our best to provide accurate information with regards to patient’s long-term prognoses without being overly grim.

In the Neuroscience Critical Care Unit I work in, we often serve as patient advocates for patients who cannot speak, or who may never recover from their condition and will likely have a poor quality of life if they do survive. We are expected to help families understand what the patient may or may not be experiencing and give them information on which they will base end-of-life decisions. We often influence (intentionally or not) decisions that literally impact people’s lives. I think it is easy to become jaded, or numb to this process at times. However, it is important that we maintain a sensitive approach with people, as they encounter these live changing crossroads.