Discuss Nurses as Health Advocates
Discussion: Nurses as Health Advocates

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Discussion: Nurses as Health Advocates
What does it take to be an effective health advocate? As a nurse, you have many opportunities to advocate for patients and populations, whether formally or informally. Being an advocate involves more than knowing how to lobby or to whom to write letters. It requires passion and compassion, commitment and courage.

In this Discussion, you will consider the attributes of an effective advocate for population health and/or the nursing profession. You will analyze those attributes that help nurses be a powerful force in improving the quality of health care and in this case especially, the needs of returning veterans and their families.

To prepare:

Review the article “On Being a Good Nurse: Reflections on the Past and Preparing for the Future” and “War, its aftermath, and U.S. health policy: Toward a comprehensive health program for America’s military personnel, veterans, and their families” found in this week’s Learning Resources.
Consider the multiple health care needs of returning veterans and their families.
BY DAY 3
Post two types of health needs returning veterans and their families might need. How might you advocate for the needs of this population. What type of advocacy skills would you need and how could you develop them. What responsibility does a nurse have to be an advocate? Give specific examples.

Week 8: Advocacy
Nursing has a rich history of advocacy beginning with Florence Nightingale. Nightingale often advocated for better hospital conditions, especially with regard to sanitation, hygiene, hospital management, and planning. In the latter half of her life, she campaigned for health reform and policies to improve quality of care. Her efforts stand as an exemplar for nurses advocating for better standards, health care reform, and policy.

This rich tradition continues. Consider the following quote from Isabel Maitland Stewart on the role of nurses as leaders and advocates:

It is evident . . . that leadership in nursing . . . is of supreme importance at this time. Nursing has faced many critical situations in its long history, but probably none more critical than the situation it is now in, and none in which the possibilities, both of serious loss and of substantial advance, are greater. What the outcome will be depends in large measure on the kind of leadership the nursing profession can give in planning for the future and in solving stubborn and perplexing problems. . . if past experience is any criterion, little constructive action will be taken without intelligent and courageous leadership.

This quote was made over 50 years ago as Stewart assessed the field of nursing following World War II. Reflect on the field of nursing from the time of Florence Nightingale to Isabel Stewart, to current circumstances. How have things progressed? How have they remained the same?

Last week, you examined the far-reaching implications of creating policy; however, without sufficient advocacy, proposed policy is often not successfully implemented. This week, you will evaluate how nurses can prepare themselves to fulfill the role of health advocate in furthering policies that improve the quality of and access to health care. You will also begin to develop a health advocacy campaign.

Reference:
Stewart, I.M. (1953). The education of nurses. New York, NY: The Macmillan Company, as quoted in White Paper on the Role of the Clinical Nurse Leader (2007), American Associations of Colleges of Nursing. Retrieved fromhttp://www.aacn.nche.edu/publications/white-papers…

Learning Objectives
Students will:
Analyze attributes of effective advocacy for patient and population health
Assess personal advocacy attributes
Evaluate the role of nurse as advocate
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Learning Resources
Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

REQUIRED READINGS
Milstead, J. A. (2019). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (6th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.Chapter 3, “Government Response: Legislation” (pp. 36-54) (review)This chapter explores the multiple factors that influence the development of public policy through the legislative branch of government.
Begley, A. (2010). On being a good nurse: Reflections on the past and preparing for the future. International Journal of Nursing Practice, 16(6), 525–532.
On being a good nurse: Reflections on the past and preparing for the future by Begley, A. in International Journal of Nursing Practice, 16(6). Copyright 2010 by John Wiley & Sons . Reprinted by permission of John Wiley & Sons via the Copyright Clearance Center

In this article, the author reflects on the qualities of a good nurse in both the past and present. The article presents a 4-point framework that exemplifies the foundational qualities of modern professional ethics and conduct.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.