evidence base practice knowledge H e a l t h M e d i c a l

• You should respond to your peers by extending, refuting/correcting, or adding additional nuance to their posts.
• All replies must be constructive and use literature where possible.

Judith Smith

St. Thomas University

State & Federal Advocacy

Advocacy is defined as the act of supporting a cause in the pursuit of influencing an outcome. The most important part of being an advocate is awareness of the issues that are important (Webb, 2016). Nurses should always advocate for their patients so that they can get the best care possible. When making public policy decisions, I believe that there should be a panel of nurses to make decisions on the policies. I say that because nurses spend the of the time with the patients, even more time than the doctors. They fully know their patients and fully know what they need for excellent health care. Nurses should be involved when it comes to making public policies. Most of the time, the people that are making policies have no medical background. They are just going by what they think will work for the patient other than what is needed for the patient.

Nurses have a lot of clinical experiences with patients and know what is best and what might not be beneficial for the patient. Nurses have the ability to change public policies to make it better for the patients. Some nurses might underestimate themselves thinking that their words might not count. If you don’t try to do something, then you will not know if there is a possibility that changes can be made. The nurses know what policies work and do not work when it comes to proper patient care. Families tend to tell the nurses all the economic problems that they are going through when it comes to paying for treatments.

Advocacy actions that I might take to improve health care through legislation are through the educational system. Through lobbying for a sufficient number of school nurses in the primary and secondary school systems, nurses may affect the quality of healthcare. By stationing nurses throughout the different schools, primary care can start from there. This can improve healthcare a lot because the children will be educated on the different signs and symptoms to look out for. They can then turn around to help educate the older adults in their family.

Another advocacy action that I can take is through healthcare. Patients are always looking for help when it comes to their healthcare. They want to know what the best action of treatment for them is. This is where nurses’ advocacy can come in using their evidence base practice knowledge. The nurses can potential impact of the project on patient care could be described, including the length of time to receive services; concerns about scheduling problems; and project expected benefits such as improved patient care, quality outcomes, and patient satisfaction.

Another way to learn how to talk to the legislative party. Some nurses are very timid when it comes to expressing their point of view. Nurses will need to know how to communicate with politicians and their workers. It’s certainly a language different from the language nurses use at the bedside, tell. It takes practice to speak to politicians, and it is helpful to watch someone else do it efficiently (Fauteux, 2020). Nurses should always be involve in the politics of making policies that will give a better outcome to our patients.

References

Fauteux, N. (2020, August 17). Nurses: How to Advocate for Federal Policy Change. Campaign for Action. https://campaignforaction.org/nurses-how-to-advocate-for-federal-policy-change/.

Webb, J. A. (2016, August). Our role as legislative advocates. NursingCenter. https://