Why Advocacy is Considered an Essential Component of the APN’s Role

One of the procedures in advanced care emphasized by nursing organizations worldwide is nursing or patient advocacy. Davoodvand, Abbaszadeh, & Ahmadi (2016) believe that advocacy shows the expert power of nursing and assists in providing quality care. Overall, advocacy refers to defending the property and rights of other people (Davoodvand, Abbaszadeh, & Ahmadi, 2016). In nursing, it entails representing patients by defending their universal rights and patient rights, supporting the patients’ decisions, contributing to the decision-making process, and protecting the patient’s interests (Davoodvand, Abbaszadeh, & Ahmadi, 2016). Nurses are often the first responders to the needs of the patients. More often than not, patients complain about inappropriate verbal communication with their nurses (Davoodvand, Abbaszadeh, & Ahmadi). Therefore, they choose the nurses whom they feel have a connection with them as their advocates. Since patients believe that the nurses with whom they have a connection are their advocates, they respond positively to their suggestions and advice, thus increasing quality care outcomes. For example, Davoodvand, Abbaszadeh, & Ahmadi (2016) write that advocacy enhances empathic patient-centered care and that patients constantly measure their nurses’ humanistic behavior and empathy. When a nurse responds to a patient’s needs with empathy, the nurse assists the patient and their family members in adapting to their health challenges, increasing patient protection (Bry et al., 2016).

Moreover, the essence of any nursing profession is grounded in the basic concern of the needs of the underprivileged and impoverished in society, including physical, emotional, and social needs (Williams, Phillips, & Koyama, 2018). Also, it is less likely that economically and socially underprivileged groups in society are healthy. Most of them die prematurely and cannot access quality care services than the economically and socially advantaged (Williams, Phillips, & Koyama, 2018). In the U.S., uninsured people, people who live in poverty, people of color, and the disabled endure the burden of health inequities (Williams, Phillips, & Koyama, 2018). Since nurses’ role entails promoting quality health care, advocacy is rooted in their role to defend the right social policies that promote health equity, fairness, and justice and address social determinants of health.