Advocacy and Global Health: Role of Healthcare Professionals

This essay discusses the importance of advocacy in healthcare, particularly within the context of global health. It defines advocacy based on principles like independence, clarity, and patient empowerment, emphasizing its role in promoting patient rights and communication with healthcare professionals. Global health is presented as a field focused on improving health and achieving equality across nations, highlighting the increasing need for global health strategies due to globalization and emerging infections. The essay reflects on the role of healthcare professionals, specifically nurses, as advocates for their patients, including educating them on treatment, administering care, and undertaking diagnostic tests. It further explores the opportunities for advocacy in a healthcare administrator's career and poses questions about the role of advocacy in the profession.

Running head: ADVOCACY
Student name
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Title: Advocacy and Global Health

ADVOCACY
Walsh (2017), thinks advocacy in the health care setting as the health practitioner’s
service to their clients in a way that promotes and enhances health and healthcare services
access in the society. Advocacy is built on certain principles which include independence,
clarity of purpose, confidentiality, equal opportunity, person centred approach and
empowerment. Accountability, accessibility, complaints (feedback) and supporting advocates
are also termed as building blocks of advocacy. According to Tomaschewski-Barlem et al.
(2016), advocacy is the way to empower patients in their decision making and enhancing
their communication with the health care professionals. It promotes and defends the rights of
the patient. Clinicians and nurses are faced with obstacles and risks as they advocate for
patients. The question I ask myself is how to deal with the patients when the attempt to
advocate for them fails.
Koplan et al. (2009), take global health to be an institution of research, study and
practice whose aim is to promote and improve health and attain health equality for all nations
worldwide. Global health is of great importance to all nations. As globalization increase, it is
essential to think of health globally as everytime there in emergence of new infections.
Global health helps in the global capacity to respond to disease threats, prevents diseases
from spreading to international levels and promotes global health (Daulaire, 2012). Health
care officers act as advocates for their patients (Choi, 2015). Nurses help educate the patients
on the progress and treatment of infections. They take care of the patients as well as develop
the care plan. They have a duty to administer treatment and medications, undertake
diagnostic test, vitals and come up with lab results (Frost, 2018).

ADVOCACY
References
Choi, P. P. (2015). Patient advocacy: The role of the nurse. The Nursing Standard, Vol. 29,
No. 41, pp. 52-58. Doi: 10.7748/ns.29.41.52.e9772
Daulaire, N. (2012). The Importance of the Global Health Strategy from the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and
Hygiene, 87(3), 382–384. http://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.2012.12-0400
Frost, S. (2018). Role of a nurse in health care. Retrieved from: https://work.chron.com/role-
nurse-health-care-6967.html
Koplan, J. P., Bond, T. C., Merson, M. H., Reddy, K. S., Rodriguez M. H., Sewankambo, N.
K. (2009). Towards a common definition of global health. Lancet, 373:1993–5.
Tomaschewski-Berlem, J. G., Lunardi, V. L., Barlrm, E. L., Ramos, A. M., Silveira, R. S. and
Vargas, M. A. (2016). How have nurses practiced patient advocacy in the hospital
context? - a foucaultian perspective. The SciELO Analytics, Vol. 25, No. 1. Doi:
10.1590/0104-0707201600002560014
Walsh, M. N. (2017). Advocacy in HealthCare. Journal of the American College of
Cardiology, Vol. 69, No. 19. DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2017.04.003