12 Sep 5 Ways You Can Better Advocate for Your Patients as a Nurse
Patient advocacy. Not only is it so important, but being able to perform it effectively also supports healthcare professionals in delivering the most respectful, patient-centric, and ethical medical treatment and care possible.
What are some ways you can better advocate for your patients as a nurse? Some of the most effective strategies include fostering open and transparent communication with both patients and peers, further educating yourself on the importance of patient advocacy, as well as actively listening to the needs of patients and keeping them connected and informed, and, of course, delivering safe, error-free, and accurate medical treatment.
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Foster Open Communication
The first step towards better patient advocacy? Fostering open communication among healthcare team members, as well as with patients.
As a nurse, you play a pivotal role in communicating your patients’ needs to other medical professionals. In performing this communicative function, nurses must be sure to accurately relay essential information relating to their patients’ diagnoses and treatments to other members of the medical team. Nurses must also work collaboratively with other healthcare team members to achieve collectively driven and positive patient outcomes.
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Educate Yourself and Others
As a licensed medical professional who wishes to advocate for their patients better, you should consider further educating yourself on the importance of patient advocacy in healthcare by completing higher qualifications. For example, a healthcare professional who is qualified with an MSN CNL would be well-equipped to advocate for their patients and to teach others to do so, too.
As such, in educating yourself about patient advocacy in healthcare, you can better advocate for your patients by teaching others to do the same. Learning about patient advocacy also highlights the importance of showing your patients how to better care for themselves by providing them with open, transparent information about their diagnosis and treatment plan. Just as importantly, you can also advise your patients on how to use their voices to speak up, make their needs and wishes heard, and exercise informed consent.
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Listen to Your Patients
As a nurse, one of the essential skills you must cultivate – in addition to strong communication and collaborative capabilities – is the art of active listening.
Some of the techniques involved in active listening include being fully present in every conversation you have with your patients, reading between the lines and picking up on body language and other nonverbal cues, and receiving all information with a nonjudgmental, unbiased, and open mind.
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Keep Your Patients Connected and Informed
Medical professionals have a duty of care to keep their patients informed about the treatment options available to them.
This involves connecting patients to resources, such as providing them with access to official medical publications, connecting them with support networks or community groups, or even sending them examples of reputable online sources they can trust.
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Ensure Safe Delivery of Medical Treatment
It must be said that in the medical profession, there is always a margin for error. The harsh truth is that diagnostic errors or misdiagnoses can happen quite often in a medical setting – and concerningly frequently at that.
To avoid this, nurses must adhere to best practices in the delivery of patient treatment and care. This involves accurately administering medications, staying vigilant when delivering treatment, and, above all, keeping the safety of their patients in mind at every step. Patient safety is an essential part of patient advocacy, and if nursing professionals want to best advocate for their patients, they must help keep them safe while they are in their care.
As a nurse, patient advocacy should and must be at the forefront of your mind at all times. How to better advocate for your patients as a nurse, then?
Some of the most effective strategies involve communicating openly with both your patients and your teammates, further educating yourself on patient advocacy, actively listening to patients’ needs, wishes, and concerns, keeping them informed and connected to resources, and, perhaps most importantly, ensuring that the medical treatment and care that you’re delivering to your patients is not only accurate and effective but also safe.
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Last Updated on September 17, 2024 by Marie Benz MD FAAD