The Ethic- Advocacy Connection
Introduction
I found the article “The ethic- advocacy connection,” written by (Smith, 2017), to be very informative. The article talks about the ethical dilemmas faced by nurses during healthcare delivery and their duty to champion for patients to ensure competent and safe care. Ethical leadership attributes are encouraged during this advocacy process.An alteration of the Nurses Code of ethics is also addressed with key emphasis placed ondeclarations to steer the nurses in essential practice areas. The fundamentals of ethical leadership, which include autonomy, Beneficence, Fidelity, Justice, Nonmaleficence, and Veracityin the aspect of nursing, are also conveyed. Finally,the qualities of leadership in nursing, also referred to as the eight C’s, including; competency, commitment, consistency, Courage, compassion, communication, Candor, and Conviction of intuition were also highlighted together with their contribution to competent and safe healthcare(Smith, 2017). After reading this article, I gained the knowledge that the eight C’s of nurses’leadership qualities contribute to competent and safe patient care through ethical advocacy.
I agree that Courage (one of the eight C’s)defined as the process whereby nurses can directly face an issue that is viewed as ethically wrongand standing for whatever they feel is right even when the repercussions are grievous plays a considerable role in competent and safe healthcare. Nurses, through this quality, gain moral Courage and are therefore able to speak out against any factor that compromises the issuance of quality healthcare to the patients since they know that without this Courage, their patients’ lives would be at risk. I also support competency as another quality, as I believe that the patients must get competent healthcare. Through ethical advocacy, nurses promote this quality by pledging to learn the evidence-basedpractice, which supports safe care and positive patient results. Compassion is also another strong quality according to my insights as it is an essential feature in the field of nursing. As it is quoted in the article ” a deep acknowledgment of the agony of another together with the wish to diminish it” (Smith, 2017), compassion plays a massive role in the healing process of a patient as he/ she feels that they are together with the nurses in the recovery journey. Supporting my insights is the article on leadership by (Jennings et al., 2008), which claims that leadership is crucial in achieving quality healthcare and safety of the patients.Therefore,leadership is expected of every individual in the nursing profession.
How commitment has been presentedas a pledge to a specific cause in the article as another quality is also commendable.This quality, which is best referred to as dedication, was accurately conveyed to illustrate how it is used through ethical advocacy in the form of improvement of quality and safety of healthcare while at the same time having the eagerness to pay attention to the feedback from patients. On Candor as another quality, I agree with the point that being truthful and open during the communication process is essential since it comes with humility and transparency.Ethical advocacy, therefore, plays a massive role in standard care and safety of patients using this quality since the leaders can build relationships based on trust with the patients that they are serving. I appreciate the fact that consistency was also added to this list of leadership qualities of nurses. As it is defined in the article as,“dependable, stable and unfaltering adherence to ethical principles” (Smith, 2017),this quality through ethical advocacy involves regularity of actions and even responses in the process of delivering healthcare, and I can attest that is a superb way of issuing safe and quality care. To back up my reflection, an article on Transforming leadership(“Transforming Leadership,” 2011), claimed that to ensure the healthcare system is transformed in such a way that quality care and safety of patients is guaranteed, strong leadership qualities are needed which are backed up by ethical principles.
I second the actuality that communication is an essential quality of leadership in the nursing profession.Through ethical advocacy, the leaders who possess this quality tend to raise themorale of nurses in the process of healthcare and, as a result, promoting wellbeing, increasing the safety of patients and quality of care. Finally, the conviction of intuition, as stated in the article, is also a core quality in nursing leadership. I agree with this quality due to the reason thatthrough ethical advocacy, developing intuition contributes to reactions by nurses that, at many points in time, benefit patients in the aspect of safety and quality care.
In conclusion,through the eight C’s, including; competency, commitment, consistency, Courage, compassion, communication, Candor, and Conviction of intuition in this article played a key role in enhancing competent and safe patient care while basing on ethical advocacy as the core principle in the enhancement.
References
Jennings, B., Disch, J., & Senn, L. (2008). Leadership. Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 20 June 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2640/.
Smith, M. (2017). The ethics/advocacy connection. Nursing Management (Springhouse), 48(8), 18-23. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.numa.0000521571.43055.38
Transforming Leadership. Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. (2011). Retrieved 20 June 2020, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK209867/.