Types of Advocacy for Nurses Today
All professionals in the field of Medicine are grounded by the desire to care for their clients. Nevertheless, the nursing practice is principally salient to the concept of advocacy. As intermediaries, nurses understand the obligation awarded to them in linking patients and medical institutions (Blackmore, 2001). The American Nurses Association (ANA) through The Bill of Rights empowers nurses with the resources and tools that gives nurses a voice to play an essential role in advancing access to high quality, affordable care for patients.
In the nursing field, there are two major types of advocacy namely case advocacy and class advocacy. As indicated by MacDonald (2007), class advocacy is a pillar of the nursing profession and has been part of the field’s traditions for antiquity. Nurses are obligated to advocate for individual patients in regards to acquiring needed services in addition to particular cases. Over the years, this concept of advocacy has seen significant changes and has gradually been included in client empowerment discussions. Nurses are also obligated to develop regulations or standards that can be used across the medical fertility in pursuit for improved service delivery in form of class advocacy. According to MacDonald (2007), contrary to focusing on a client’s opportunity choices, nurses use class advocacy to change the entire medical industry for the greater good of the community, groups, or organizations. The American Nurses Association (ANA) holds a number of seats in the U.S Congress that aid in the pursuit of nurses altering existing policies that significantly benefit the community at large directly or indirectly.
From the information provided it is evident that nurses use class and case advocacy to provide clients with the best healthcare service available in the market. On an individual as well as a communal basis, there is a continued need for patients to be represented to both health authorities and politicians. Nurses have for years played this for years and the ANA offers a platform for better representation in the future.
References
Blackmore, R. (2001). Advocacy in nursing: Perceptions of learning disability nurses. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 5(3), 221-234.
MacDonald, H. (2007). Relational ethics and advocacy in nursing: literature review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 57(2), 119-126.