25 Sep 2022

130

How to Advocate for a Patient in the Healthcare System

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Academic level: University

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Nurses daily have the opportunity to serve humanity and have a positive impact on the lives of patients that they serve. In the healthcare system, you are likely to encounter a lot of challenges in the process of advancing your career as a nurse manager. There are a lot of changes that are unprecedented in the healthcare system, but they have a significant impact on the nurses as they are practicing their profession. Some of these changes have a considerable impact in terms of financial pressures, inability in implementation of healthcare reforms, pressure from regulatory bodies in improving quality and patient safety, and technology, among others. From the above, it calls for advocacy for the nurses and patients to protect them in their pursuit of the profession or medication ( Marquis & Huston, 2017) . Advocacy means that one has to defend, plead for, and support the cause or interests of a particular group or individual. In this paper, we will look into scenarios of patient advocacy in the HCA hospital where I work. 

Advocating for a patient means that you have to embrace the role and apply it for patients, colleagues, and the profession itself ( Marquis & Huston, 2017) . In defending the profession, there is a mandate that as a nurse, one has to ensure that he or she is promoting the safe practice environment the way it is outlined in the American Nurses Association documents. In my career as the Chief Nurse of the HCA hospital, I have dealt with several cases of advocacy for the patients that are left under my care. I once handled a situation where the patient was undergoing a lot of suffering, but in the real sense there was nothing that could be done to help the patient he was a cancer patient, and he was in advanced levels with only a few months to live. The family of the patient was pushing for methods that could help the patient prolong his life a little bit. The truth was that there was nothing to be done to save him, and he was in a lot of pain. As a nurse, I had to advocate for him and make him my priority ( Krive, 2013) . Regardless of what the family wanted, I had to facilitate what the patient wanted. I had to stand up for the rights of the patient and defend his needs. At that juncture, you have to decide and put aside personal feelings and put the focus on the healthcare needs of the patients and not the preferences of the caregivers ( Marquis & Huston, 2017) . The management was in support because I had made the patient my priority and acted upon his wishes, which were to switch off the life-supporting machine. 

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In advocating for the patients requires you as a nurse manager to make informed decisions. You have to come up with the right decision regarding the health of the patients. An alert and the competent patient will require you to make serious decisions in their favor, even in scenarios where they may refuse to take medication or be treated ( Krive, 2013) . In cases where the physician is not agreeing, it is the responsibility of the nurse to provide information for the patient to make considerations or the right decisions. 

Another possible area of advocacy is where, as a nurse, you have to give the best advice, especially for financial terms. Sometimes a patient might be having difficulties in sorting drugs costs, but as a nurse, you have to know the resources where they can obtain cheaper services either within their communities or in other health organizations. As a nurse, it requires you to assist a patient with research that will involve cost saving, and that includes making a comparison of the cost of drugs or asking physicians to consider lowering costs. 

References  

Krive, J. (2013). Building effective workforce management practices through shared governance and technology systems integration. Nursing Economic$, 31(5), 231-249 

Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2017). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application. Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer. Optional Resources: 

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StudyBounty. (2023, September 14). How to Advocate for a Patient in the Healthcare System.
https://studybounty.com/how-to-advocate-for-a-patient-in-the-healthcare-system-essay

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