Advocacy in perioperative nursing practice

Advocacy describes the act of pleading for, supporting, and active espousal. It implies taking action to achieve a goal on behalf of oneself or another. In nursing, the patient's wishes often serve as the impetus for advocacy. Perioperative nurses function as advocates and accept responsibility to safe-guard the rights of surgical patients. This article describes historical aspects of and conceptual problems in nursing advocacy, and it presents case studies that demonstrate advocacy by the perioperative nurse.