Advocacy in nursing: perceptions and attitudes of the nursing elite in the United Kingdom

Abstract

In recent years, patient advocacy has been claimed as an integral part of the nurse's role in health care delivery in the United Kingdom (UK). Support from the nursing leadership/elite is seen as important in the promulgation and diffusion of any 'new' role in nursing. This paper explores the perceptions and attitudes of nurse leaders in the UK to the adoption of the patient advocate role as an 'innovation' in nursing. Using a qualitative methodology, semi-structured interviews with six of nursing's 'elite' were conducted over a period of 5 months. Results revealed contradictions and paradoxes within the views of the elite. Although leaders recognized patient advocacy as a role integral to the moral value system in nursing enhanced by the nurse-patient relationship, they objected to the professionalization of the role, seeing an exclusive claim to patient advocacy as intensifying interprofessional conflicts in health care. It is argued that unless professionalized, the individual nurse will continue this potentially risky activity without adequate authority or support systems. The results overall question the role of the nursing leadership in the diffusion of innovations in nursing.

Bridging the Gap: a study of general nurses’ perceptions of patient advocacy in Ireland

“…Advocacy is used as a political tool in some cases, a view supported by a number of authors. 12,41,53 Snowball 12 and Willard 41 propose that advocacy has been used in a covert way to enhance the nursing profession, a view that would appear to have some basis in truth. Therefore, while Jezewski's 31 culture broker model is evident, the large element of conflict and confrontation caused by advocacy inhibits its operation.…”

Swedish registered nurses' and nurse managers' attitudes towards patient advocacy in community care of older patients

“…Mallik () studied the attitudes of nurse managers' (NMs') towards patient advocacy. The NMs expressed the opinion that advocacy for patients was a vital and important part of the RNs' professional role.…”

Development and testing of an instrument to measure protective nursing advocacy

“…13,28,29 Additional forces that have been shown to compel nurses to advocate include emotional and moral distress, 27,30 moral obligation, 31 and vulnerable clients with unmet needs. 12,17,32,33 Workplace support…”