Nursing Advocacy and Policy: Roles, Empowerment, and Values | Assignments Public Health

Discussion Post 1 – Unit 3

Based on your experiences and readings, analyze the roles, empowerment of

patients, and values needed to be an effective nurse advocate and policy player.

The nursing profession is the oldest and largest profession in healthcare. They act as

patient advocates and provide justice for their patients better than anyone else.

Advocacy is considered the ethic of the nursing profession. Oftentimes, nurses are the

first advocates between the patients and the link between the patient and the healthcare

system (Davoodvand et al., 2016). They do this by having open communication with

patients, effective education on disease processes and prevention, and responsive

care, and this is how nurses empower their patients to take control of their own health

(Faststaff Travel Nursing, 2015). An article by Davoodvand and colleagues (2016),

states nurses act as a patient representative, defending the patient’s rights and

universal rights, protecting the interests of the patient, contributing to decision-making,

and supporting the patient’s decisions, ethical-centered skills for the professional self,

and being a voice for the vulnerable. Nurses also play a crucial part in breaking medical

information down to a common terminology for the patients to better understand their

medical conditions and disease processes. Nurses should also need to understand the

laws and regulations of the state they practice in to better serve as advocates for their

patients. I believe these are the values that are needed to be an effective nurse

advocate and policy player.

Discuss the APN’s role as a change agent.

For nurses and APRNs, to act as a change agent is an honor and a basic right as the

nursing profession is all about being advocates for our patients. As professionals, APNs

advocate for their role and profession, as well as the improvement of social and

healthcare policies on behalf of individuals (Kostas-Polston et al., 2015). For the change

to occur, there are a few ways in which they can serve as a change agent. For the

patients, the APNs role is to protect the patient from harm, by communicating patient

preferences, fostering collaboration, providing essential information to inform decision-

making, and supporting the voice of the patient regarding choices and care (Dworak-

Peck, 2020). For communities, APNs can share health care costs with community

leaders and elected officials and by providing information regarding available

community resources (Dworak-Peck, 2020). For the profession and policy change,

nurses can learn about the legislative process and provide expert testimony to help

inform policy decisions. Overall, nurses advocate for improvements in their work

settings and for the advancement of the profession as a whole by acting collectively

(Dworak-Peck, 2020).

Provide an example of a time that you have acted asan advocate or a situation

that you are familiar with that involved an APN acting as an advocate.

Patient advocacy in a clinical setting focuses on health conditions, healthcare

resources, patient needs, and that of the public as well (Nsiah & Ninnoni, 2019). An

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Discussion Post 1 – Unit 3 Based on your experiences and readings, analyze the roles, empowerment of patients, and values needed to be an effective nurse advocate and policy player. The nursing profession is the oldest and largest profession in healthcare. They act as patient advocates and provide justice for their patients better than anyone else. Advocacy is considered the ethic of the nursing profession. Oftentimes, nurses are the first advocates between the patients and the link between the patient and the healthcare system (Davoodvand et al., 2016). They do this by having open communication with patients, effective education on disease processes and prevention, and responsive care, and this is how nurses empower their patients to take control of their own health (Faststaff Travel Nursing, 2015). An article by Davoodvand and colleagues (2016), states nurses act as a patient representative, defending the patient’s rights and universal rights, protecting the interests of the patient, contributing to decision-making, and supporting the patient’s decisions, ethical-centered skills for the professional self, and being a voice for the vulnerable. Nurses also play a crucial part in breaking medical information down to a common terminology for the patients to better understand their medical conditions and disease processes. Nurses should also need to understand the laws and regulations of the state they practice in to better serve as advocates for their patients. I believe these are the values that are needed to be an effective nurse advocate and policy player. Discuss the APN’s role as a change agent. For nurses and APRNs, to act as a change agent is an honor and a basic right as the nursing profession is all about being advocates for our patients. As professionals, APNs advocate for their role and profession, as well as the improvement of social and healthcare policies on behalf of individuals (Kostas-Polston et al., 2015). For the change to occur, there are a few ways in which they can serve as a change agent. For the patients, the APNs role is to protect the patient from harm, by communicating patient preferences, fostering collaboration, providing essential information to inform decision- making, and supporting the voice of the patient regarding choices and care (Dworak- Peck, 2020). For communities, APNs can share health care costs with community leaders and elected officials and by providing information regarding available community resources (Dworak-Peck, 2020). For the profession and policy change, nurses can learn about the legislative process and provide expert testimony to help inform policy decisions. Overall, nurses advocate for improvements in their work settings and for the advancement of the profession as a whole by acting collectively (Dworak-Peck, 2020). Provide an example of a time that you have acted as an advocate or a situation that you are familiar with that involved an APN acting as an advocate. Patient advocacy in a clinical setting focuses on health conditions, healthcare resources, patient needs, and that of the public as well (Nsiah & Ninnoni, 2019). An

example of a time when I acted as an advocate for a patient that I was caring for is from my time when I was working as a nursing intern on the med surge floor. I am tri-lingual and I had a patient who was very religious from India, and who was not very fluent in English. She was a strict vegetarian but did not consume onions and garlic due to her religion. I was assessing the patient as a normal day-to-day duty when she asked me if the meal that she was given had any onions or garlic as she could faintly smell it in the food she was severed, and I checked it and there was. I advocated for my patient by first doing to the nurse supervisor that I was working under, and then to the director of nursing to make sure the food she gets does not have any trace of onions and garlic. The patient was very thankful for my gesture. Had I not done this, this lady would have eaten the food which was against her religious values. Additionally, address how the APN role is implemented at an organization, state, and national level. APRN is a nurse who has acquired clinical competencies and advanced decision- making skills, through rigorous training and education for the expanded nursing role in the clinical setting. APRNs often work in hospitals, outpatient clinics, urgent care, nursing homes, retail clinics, educational institutions, and emergency rooms and provide exceptional care to the patients. The American Association of Nurse Practitioners developed the standards and the scope of practice for APRNs which all must follow when practicing in the U.S. The roles and regulations of APRNs vary in each state. For example, the state of Wisconsin where I live and will practice requires a career-long collaborative agreement with a physician to work and provide patient care (Scope of Practice Policy, 2022). APRNs also have the prescriptive authority to prescribe controlled substances III-V in all fifty states of the United States on a national level, however, they cannot prescribe Schedule II medications in some states. In Wisconsin, APRNs can prescribe schedule III but have very limited authority in prescribing schedule II medications (American Medical Association, 2017). In other states such as Washington, the APRNs have a full scope of practice, where they can practice without a supervising physician and can full prescriptive authority as long as they meet the state standards. The text discusses the limited evidence base for the credibility of advocacy, in your opinion does it work? Why or why not? Support your thoughts with evidence. I believe that credibility is very important when advocating for patients. As a nurse, when we advocate for our patients, we are protecting the patients and their rights by being their voice. To achieve advocacy and policy change, we have to become credible first, one can achieve this by giving off ourselves to our patients as we focus on patient needs, health conditions, and available resources. We have to first become a person of integrity, knowledgeable about our rights, being unbiased and most importantly being truthful (Rasmussen & Bennett, 2022).

Nursing Advocacy and Policy: Roles, Empowerment, and Values, Assignments of Public Health

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