This reflective account will discuss the Professional Value ‘Advocacy’ in relation to my own personal experience with a patient. The account will be reflected upon relative to Driscoll’s Model (2007) and will be discussed in accordance with The Code: Nursing & Midwifery Council’s (2015) confidentiality guidelines. For this account, the patient in question will be referred to by the pseudonym ‘Sam’.
What?
Sam was a white male in his 60’s who smoked most of his life and suffered from Peripheral Arterial Disease in both legs. Post-operatively of his second Angioplasty, Sam started to exhibit strange behaviour. He found it difficult to sleep at night and began hallucinating. He would sometimes ramble incoherently, as well as becoming aggressive …show more content…
Patient advocacy is depicted as being a crucial aspect to nursing by, international and national standards of practice, nursing curriculum and codes of practice (Cole et al, 2014). It is defined in the Oxford Dictionary of Nursing (2008:10) as ‘a nurse, who utilizes this role to promote and safeguard the interests of his or her patients or clients by ensuring they are aware of their rights and have access to information to make informed decisions’.
Nurses are required to adhere to this value as nursing means to take on the role of teacher, interpreter, carer and communicator. Nursing is not just a profession but a vocation, and it is a nurse’s responsibility to protect their patients. As stated by University Alliance (2015) ‘Nurses are in a position to integrate all aspects of the patient’s care and ensure that concerns are addressed, standards of care are met and a positive outcome for the patient remains the goal of the healthcare team’.
Without advocacy, patient’s like Sam may not be able to effectively communicate on their own. Sometimes a nurse must be a patient’s voice, for example, Helene Donelly advocated on behalf of her patient’s at Staffordshire Hospital when she reported that she had witnessed ‘terrible care’, such as patients being left to rot in their own faeces (Woodhouse, 2013). It was partly due to Donelly’s advocacy that investigations began and The Francis Report (2013) was written, the inquiry has since brought on many positive changes for all of …show more content…
Issues can arise when emotional attachment to patients comes into consideration. For example, not only did I care for Sam pre-operatively and post-operatively, but I had been down to theatre with him and was present for the entire procedure. I had developed a bond with Sam, and so felt compelled to become involved when he was having his outburst. This issue is brought up in Nurse Boersa’s (2012) reflective research on patient advocacy, she states that ‘I was unable to hide my disappointment and upset with regard to my findings of Mr R’s present state and certainly the staff nurse was defensive with regard to her role in this
What?
Sam was a white male in his 60’s who smoked most of his life and suffered from Peripheral Arterial Disease in both legs. Post-operatively of his second Angioplasty, Sam started to exhibit strange behaviour. He found it difficult to sleep at night and began hallucinating. He would sometimes ramble incoherently, as well as becoming aggressive …show more content…
Patient advocacy is depicted as being a crucial aspect to nursing by, international and national standards of practice, nursing curriculum and codes of practice (Cole et al, 2014). It is defined in the Oxford Dictionary of Nursing (2008:10) as ‘a nurse, who utilizes this role to promote and safeguard the interests of his or her patients or clients by ensuring they are aware of their rights and have access to information to make informed decisions’.
Nurses are required to adhere to this value as nursing means to take on the role of teacher, interpreter, carer and communicator. Nursing is not just a profession but a vocation, and it is a nurse’s responsibility to protect their patients. As stated by University Alliance (2015) ‘Nurses are in a position to integrate all aspects of the patient’s care and ensure that concerns are addressed, standards of care are met and a positive outcome for the patient remains the goal of the healthcare team’.
Without advocacy, patient’s like Sam may not be able to effectively communicate on their own. Sometimes a nurse must be a patient’s voice, for example, Helene Donelly advocated on behalf of her patient’s at Staffordshire Hospital when she reported that she had witnessed ‘terrible care’, such as patients being left to rot in their own faeces (Woodhouse, 2013). It was partly due to Donelly’s advocacy that investigations began and The Francis Report (2013) was written, the inquiry has since brought on many positive changes for all of …show more content…
Issues can arise when emotional attachment to patients comes into consideration. For example, not only did I care for Sam pre-operatively and post-operatively, but I had been down to theatre with him and was present for the entire procedure. I had developed a bond with Sam, and so felt compelled to become involved when he was having his outburst. This issue is brought up in Nurse Boersa’s (2012) reflective research on patient advocacy, she states that ‘I was unable to hide my disappointment and upset with regard to my findings of Mr R’s present state and certainly the staff nurse was defensive with regard to her role in this