Patient Advocacy Paper

I am writing in response to a recent article in OJIN titled “Registered Nurses as Caregivers: Influencing the System as Patient Advocates” by Michelle A Lucatorto, Timothy W Thomas, and Terry Siek located in Vol-21-2016 September. Patient advocacy is of the utmost priority for a nurse. We are the primary caregiver, and most influential part of the patient’s healthcare experience. The article addresses barriers within the healthcare system which inhibit nurses in their roles of patient advocate. I am writing this letter in agreement with this fact. I firmly believe that institutional barriers are the largest impediment that a nurse faces in their roles. I am writing this letter to provide evidence to this fact, and provide additional support
Among them are lack of resources, limited time, staffing issues, poor collaboration of team members and disciplines, and consequences of patient advocacy. The most common factors affecting advocacy are time and staffing ratios. The reduction in patient length of stay at a facility and the increase in the number of patients that a nurse is assigned decreases the amount of time a nurse gets to spend with a patient. These constraints prevent the nurse from spending the time to truly get to know their patients, and learn their needs holistically to effectively advocate. Poor interdisciplinary collaboration is the next factor. The nurse physician power struggle can have disastrous effects on advocacy. Many nurses fear confrontation from physicians when questioning care for a patient, and several physicians interpret the questioning as insubordination. When this happens many details can be overlooked or ignored creating harm to the patient. Finally consequences of being a patient advocate. When a nurse is placed in a situation where ethical issues arise from advocating it places them in a difficult position with coworkers and can create hostile work environments effecting patient