Patients are usually vulnerable in the clinical setting due to either lack of education and severity of their illness or fear due to terminal conditions. Thus, advocating for them meant respecting them, recognizing their individualities and giving them dignify care without any intimidation. For instance, two nurses made the following statements: Valuing and respecting under the interpersonal relationship theme were important points raised when respondents were describing patent advocacy. Get the latest research from NIH: https://www.nih.gov/coronavirus. So far as they come to the hospital, they are coming in for some sort of help. We will like to express our gratitude to the nurses who spent time to participate in the study as well as Professor Janet Gross and Ms. Dzigbodi Kpikpitse for their valuable suggestions and support. 2019 May 29;6(3):1124-1132. doi: 10.1002/nop2.307. The result revealed that educating the patients as a form of advocacy meant enlightening the patients on their health conditions and getting them to understand their care process to enhance cooperation and speedy recovery. Some participants expressed these sentiments: It also meant nurses were available to help whenever needed by their patients. It enables researchers to gain an understanding of individuals' underlying reasons, opinions and motives, as well as insight into the problem (Creswell, 2014). This interpretation implies that advocating for the patients goes beyond caring for the physical needs of that person. In our case for instance when you want to admit a patient, then you need to get her to understand the reasons for the admission, the complications and get the family on board to help in the health care delivery. This site needs JavaScript to work properly. The study will be relevant in other countries with similar setting as that of the one studied. The study commenced after permission was granted by both Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University and the authorities at the hospital where the study occurred. Nevertheless, critics are of the view that nurses should not be the ultimate patient advocate due to their conflicting loyalty to both the employer and the patient (Black, 2011). 2007 Jan;57(2):119-26. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.04063.x. The participants made the following comments: The interpersonal relationship as described by all participants dealt with interaction with patients and establishing rapport with the patient and family member. I can come in and then speak on their behalf. Several methods were used to improve trustworthiness in this study. Participant's responses were therefore not limited to the specific unit where they were practicing, rather a collective experience of their practice across the various units in the clinical setting. Participants were assured that their rights to privacy and confidentiality would be protected. Patient advocacy has been described by Jackson et al. A qualitative approach with descriptive study design was used to meet the set objective. This theory is one of the requirements put in place for any professional nurse. The proposed mid-range theory may be useful in guiding advocacy practice in nursing and in guiding research in the advocacy area. NLM To those participants, education meant enlightening the patients on their health conditions and getting the patient to understand all that will be involved in their care process. …Sometimes when our clients come to the hospital sometimes they need somebody to stand in for them to help them with their care and speak sometimes on their behalf to the management or other people. Citation: Selanders, L., Crane, P., (January 31, 2012) \"The Voice of Florence Nightingale on Advocacy\" OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing Vol. The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties. In addition, significant agreement of the themes identified in this study and those of nursing literature indicate that the research findings have been confirmed by other researchers. However, this challenge was overcame through establishment of interpersonal relationship with participants and reassuring them of the use of pseudonyms and confidentiality in reporting of study findings. Theoretical saturation was attained as mention of themes became increasingly redundant (Creswell, 2014). Epub 2020 Jan 28. Graham (2012) argued that even competent patients are also at risk of making wrong decisions due to insufficient information, making nursing advocacy very essential. 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