Advocacy is one of the tenets of the nursing profession. Daily we communicate and collaborate with physicians, social workers, family members, and the patient themselves to ensure that the patient is receiving the safest, accurate, culturally competent care derived from evidence-based practice. To advocate for one’s patient means that the nurse will stand up for the patient’s rights, and will work to meet the needs of care, not only physically, but holistically (Helbig, 2018).
While the nurse advocates at the bedside, there are multiple professional nursing organizations that advocate for the nursing profession. These professional nursing organizations are present during the forming and making of changes in healthcare legislation that shapes nursing at the federal and state levels, advocating for safe practices that ensure nurses are within their scope of practice as well as being supplied with the necessary tools to be safe and successful. The American Nurses Association (ANA) advocates for nursing at the federal level through the Federal Government Affairs program, and at the state level through the State Government Affairs program. At both levels, theses updates are provided and available to nurses that allow for up-to-date and proposed changes in legislation that affect and address current issues such as workplace violence, staffing ratios, and the nursing scope of practice through the ANA website (Helbig, 2018).
ANA, along with many other professional nursing organizations are essential to change, safety, and advancement in patient care through advocacy and activism. These organizations review articles and publish monthly or quarterly journals that advance our practice based on the latest in science and research, they sanction advanced certificates in areas of specialty as well as provided study material, prep classes, and registration to sit for these certificates. Many of these organizations are focused on specialty areas in the nursing profession like critical care or trauma, but others are based on a gender like the American Assembly for Men in Nursing, an ethnicity like the National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurse Associations, or an underserved geographical location like Nurses Without Boarders (Nurse.org, 2021). Each of these groups, albeit a different name or focus to advocate for, advocates for the nursing profession, and the patients that are served by all nurses.
(FYI: Using 200-300 words APA format with at least two references. Sources must be published within the last 5 years. There should be a mix between research and your reflections. Add critical thinking in the posts along with research. Apply the material in a substantial way.)
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