Patient advocacy

rdf:langString Patient advocacy

rdf:langString Valuing has two components: valuing patients’ individuality and valuing self. The patient advocate is one who, while providing expert care, maintains ‘individualization and humanity’

rdf:langString The activity goes beyond raising and spending money. A new breed of patient advocate sits at the table with scientists and policymakers, setting research agendas, planning studies, and considering how study results should affect clinical practice.

rdf:langString In their position of powerlessness, patients require someone to speak for them, and in some cases mediate on their behalf

rdf:langString [Apprising] requires that the patient is knowl- edgeable, before making the decision, about the impli- cations, consequences and alternative options on offer. Thus the advocate acts as a ‘sounding board’ so that patients can arrive at the right decision aware of the ramifications of their decisions.

rdf:langString Most literature pertains to interceding between patients and healthcare providers. Some identifies that the patient’s advocate intercedes between patients and family or significant others

rdf:langString Patient advocacy is a process in health care concerned with advocacy and support for patients, survivors, and caregivers. The patient advocate may be an individual or an organization, concerned with healthcare standards or with one specific group of disorders. The terms patient advocate and patient advocacy can refer both to individual advocates providing services that organizations also provide, and to organizations whose functions extend to individual patients. Some patient advocates work for the institutions that are directly responsible for the patient's care. Typical advocacy activities are the following: safeguarding patients from errors, incompetence and misconduct; patient rights, matters of privacy, confidentiality or informed consent, patient representation, awareness building, support and education of patients, survivors and their carers. Patient advocates give a voice to patients, survivors and their carers on healthcare-related (public) fora, informing the public, the political and regulatory world, health-care providers (hospitals, insurers, pharmaceutical companies etc.), organizations of health-care professionals, the educational world, and the medical and pharmaceutical research communities. Nurses can perform a de facto role of patient advocacy. Patients can advocate for themselves through self-advocacy and the ability for this self-advocacy can be learnt or improved through training.