Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Student Attitudes Toward Their Role As Patient Advocate, Jacquelyn Heinlein Graven

Honors Projects

Patient advocacy is a role which has been identified as an important one for nurses. Numerous definitions, models, opinions and philosophical justification of advocacy as a nursing role are described in the literature. The importance of this role is obvious when considering the philosophical dimensions of advocacy. It has been suggested that the concept of advocacy may be the fundamental or theoretical foundation of nursing (Donahue, 1985; Gadow, 1980). Although the role has been discussed for many years there are few established guidelines for implementation and little research exists regarding the advocacy role. The purpose of this descriptive study is …