The Nurse as Advocate

The Nurse as Advocate

The Nurse as Advocate

Whether nurses are advocating for their patients, health care, and/or policies that improve people’s lives, the advocacy processes have commonalities that transcend the subject of their advocacy. There are also differences, although these differences may be more nuanced than obvious.

Tasks:

Write a 5-page brief to answer the following questions. Be sure to use APA guidelines for writing style, spelling and grammar, and citation of sources.

Read the following chapters from your course textbook:

• Taking Action: Nurse, Educator, and Legislator: My Journey to the Delaware Senate
• Taking Action: A Nurse in the Board Room

Answer the below questions:

• Describe what you believe to be the drivers for each of the individuals? What factors led them to become advocates?
• Discuss the challenges that each of them identified in their writings.
• Analyze these drivers and challenges and compare them with your own experience to date as an advocate. In what ways do you believe that you can expand your advocacy skills within the next five years?

The Nurse Leader as Knowledge Worker

The term “knowledge worker” was first coined by management consultant and author Peter Drucker in his book, The Landmarks of Tomorrow (1959). Drucker defined knowledge workers as high-level workers who apply theoretical and analytical knowledge, acquired through formal training, to develop products and services. Does this sound familiar?

Nurses are very much knowledge workers. What has changed since Drucker’s time are the ways that knowledge can be acquired. The volume of data that can now be generated and the tools used to access this data have evolved significantly in recent years and helped healthcare professionals (among many others) to assume the role of knowledge worker in new and powerful ways.

In this Assignment, you will consider the evolving role of the nurse leader and how this evolution has led nurse leaders to assume the role of knowledge worker. You will prepare a presentation with an info graphic to educate others on the role of nurse as knowledge worker.

Reference: Drucker, P. (1959). The landmarks of tomorrow. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.

To Prepare:

Review the concepts of informatics as presented in the Resources.

Reflect on the role of a nurse leader as a knowledge worker.

Consider how knowledge may be informed by data that is collected/accessed.