Creating an ethical practice environment: a focus on advocacy

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Policy
• Ethics

Background:

• Effective nursing advocacy is crucial for patient safety and quality care.
• Complex healthcare environments present challenges to nurses acting as advocates.
• Core values like competency, collaboration, communication, and ethics underpin advocacy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define nursing advocacy.
• To examine the feasibility of effective advocacy in complex critical care settings.
• To identify barriers to nursing advocacy and propose solutions.

Main Methods:

• Literature review on nursing advocacy.
• Analysis of complex practice environments.
• Exploration of barriers and facilitators to advocacy.

Main Results:

• Advocacy is multifaceted, requiring specific environmental support.
• Barriers include system constraints and lack of resources.
• Individual and systemic strategies can enhance advocacy.

Conclusions:

• Supportive environments are essential for nurses to advocate effectively.
• Addressing identified barriers is key to promoting advocacy.
• Implementing individual and systems-level changes can foster a culture of advocacy.