MEDIUM OF ADVOCACY: DO NURSES PROMOTE

PATIENTS RIGHTS?
Chester T. Esguerra; Sheena Mae Ison; J.C. Kate C. Pajarillaga; Pauline V. Patiag;
Kiara Nina Noelee R. Villaroman, Nicanor Mian-Domingo III, Josephine O. Samonte
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY-PHILIPPINES
Cabanatuan City
nmdomingo@gmail.com
Advocacy is the heart and soul of nursing practice (Zolnierek,
2010). This study was undertaken to determine the nurses role on
patients rights advocacy towards nurse-patient relationship. As a
backbone of providing health care services, patients bill of rights is
also one of the major factors to consider in achieving a therapeutic
nurse-patient relationship (NPR).
The study adopted a descriptive-correlation method to 30
medical-surgical patients and their 30 staff nurses, purposivelyselected in a tertiary hospital in Nueva Ecija. Pilot-tested
questionnaire with Likert scale was used as the instrument which
was content-validated by the researchers adviser and experts in the
field.
It is noted that staff nurses were effective in their advocacy role
on patients bill of rights towards therapeutic NPR, client-centered
care, and maintaining boundaries.
It was also found out that age (p= -.396) and length of service (p
= -.433) of the staff nurses have significant relationship with their
NPR. As age and length of service increases, the better their
influence in the said relationship.
Significant difference on patient-respondents description of
therapeutic NPR were seen in educational attainment (t-Stat = .797),
occupation (t-Stat = .295) and monthly income (t-Stat =.896).
Moreover, there is no significant difference in describing patients'
rights advocacy (t-Stat value = -3.1315) and describing therapeutic
NPR (t-Stat value = -3.8630) between both respondents. It is
recommended that experienced nurses hone newly-registered nurses
to promoting patient advocacy and better NPR.
Keywords: therapeutic nurse-patient relationship, correlation, advocacy,
bill of rights