Advocacy for Health Care Professionals
Legislative advocacy emphasizes legislative development, implementation, and iteration. It can range from modest chores like working directly with a politician on bill wording to significant efforts like rallying tens of thousands of stakeholders or fans to call a legislator about a particular issue. It involves airing out views and taking action in place of oneself and others. The efforts are aimed at ensuring an introduction and enactment of the legislation. Advocacy is essential to the nursing profession (O’Connor, 2018). Nurses are always the first line of interaction with patients. Therefore, nurses must acquire strong advocacy skills for patients in their care. The most common types of legislative advocacy are professional advocacy and political advocacy.
Professional advocacy is raising and highlighting an issue within a population, such as making health care a topic of national debate and media attention. Lobbying is directing one’s efforts toward individuals in authority, for instance, administrative bodies, government officials, politicians, and regulatory organizations (Schaeffer & Haebler, 2019). Professional groups, for example, nurses, are the essential voice that ensures they have feedback regarding components and were incorporated in the drafting and final legislation process during the creation of the Affordable Care Act.
Professional advocacy generally involves public speaking, media advertising, polls, and publishing research. It means to plead for the cause of another. For instance, nurses advocate for patient’s needs while in their care, frequently consulting with the doctor about their requirements. If the patient’s pain relief medication has to be increased, the nurse collects further information such as when the pain occurs, where the pain occurs, and what more may be done to relieve the pain besides drugs. With this information, nurses consult with the doctor and agree on whether increasing the dosage or the degree of activity will provide better pain relief (Schaeffer, & Haebler, 2019). On the other hand, political advocacy involves informing decision-makers. They can be elected officials and staff or voters on ballot initiatives on the current or proposed law and recommend a vote for or against it. Typically, it involves three elements: decision-makers, law, and a request for a vote.
However, a lobbyist and an advocate have a lot in common. They both want to persuade someone to think about their issue and agree it is vital. They both want people to act and make changes that benefit those lobbying or advocating, whether they are politicians or members of the general public. The distinction is in whom they are, essentially speaking. A lobbyist is more likely to communicate with a politician to influence them. While lobbying may imply professional advocacy, not all are lobbying (Schaeffer & Haebler, 2019). Professional advocacy is any activity that speaks in favor of encourages fights for, endorsements, protects, or appeals on account of others. Advocating for one’s goal entails nearly every type of communication a nonprofit might engage in. Lobbying, on the other hand, is a somewhat specialized field.
A political action committee (PAC) is an organization that gathers contributions from members and then distributes them to political campaigns. These assets could be used to support or oppose candidates in elections. Most political action committees are formed to represent industry, labor, or specific issues such as abortion rights. Political action committees are formed to raise funds confidentially to influence elections or legislation. It is vital in driving candidates’ campaign contributions (O’Connor, 2018). PACs exist in the nursing career. Nurses play a critical role in influencing care delivery models and healthcare policies. Therefore, political action committees guide nurses in understanding the role played by money politically and how contributions to the campaigns of a candidate benefit in having one’s apprehensions addressed by Congress.