Nursing advocacy is the practice of promoting patient rights, making improvements in the healthcare industry, and portraying a positive image of the nursing community. 2006, 283). POhWER is a charity that helps people to be involved in decisions being made about their care. Contact social services at your local council and ask about advocacy services. Call POhWER's support centre on 0300 456 2370 for advice. Coram Voice offers mental health advocacy for young people in care. Santé Refugee Mental Health Access Project provides advocacy for vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers. While some nurses work primarily as advocates to advance these aspects of the profession, all nurses are to some extent nursing advocates. Patient advocacy in nursing practice: A systematic literature review (Bachelor thesis, Turku University of Applied Sciences, Finland). For example: MindOut offers advocacy for all LGBTQ people. The Advocacy People gives advocacy support. Patient advocacy in the community and legislative arena. Group advocacy (also known as collective advocacy) This is where a group of … Find your local social services. The analysis of this concept can help to develop educational or managerial theories, design instruments for evaluating the performance of nurses in patient advocacy, develop strategies for enhancing patient advocacy, and improve the safety and quality of nursing care in the community and healthcare system. Nursing advocacy plays a key role in observing safety of patients during their encounters with health care system; especially when the patient is too ill to serve his own advocate or when the patient is undergoing surgery and anesthesia. Patient advocacy is described as “nursing activities aimed at securing patient’s legal and ethical rights and satisfying their existential needs, both on the level of the patient-nurse relationship and in the healthcare team or organization” (Vaartio-Rajalin & Leino-Kilpi, 2011). Vaartio-Rajalin, H., & Leino-Kilpi, H. (2011). examples of the challenges nurses face in the field it is hoped to illuminate how the theory of nursing advocacy translates into practice. Many theorists in nursing tend to agree that patient advocacy by nurses is important and that all healthcare facilities must hold patient advocacy in high esteem (Curtin, 1979; Gadow, 1980; Peplau, 1992). Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 17(1), 1-1. Nursing advocacy activities have received less coverage in the research literature than the concept itself (Vaartio et al. Shelter and Groundswell offer advocacy for people experiencing housing problems. Patients are usually vulnerable in the clinical setting due to either lack of education and severity of their illness or fear due to terminal conditions. Maryland, M.A., & Gonzalez, R.I. (2012).