Advocacy Issues in Nursing & Healthcare Leadership

Coined in 2019 by the Nursing Executive Centre of the Advisory Board, the experience-complexity gap describes the dangerously widening difference between the average nurse’s knowledge today and the rapidly increasing complexity of the patients they serve and the technology they must oversee. Put simply, patients have never been sicker, the technology required to keep them alive has never been more involved, and the nurses overseeing their care have never been less knowledgeable and experienced–through no fault of their own.

It’s clear that what these executives fear most is not the actual cost of paying travel nurses but rather what that cost signifies. Nurses who know their worth and demand competitive compensation packages and workplace safety measures are a threat to the system at large, and they will do anything to protect the status quo because it’s working perfectly for them.

Transitioning from nursing school into clinical practice has always challenged new nurses. According to one study published in Nursing Economics, 17 percent of new graduate nurses leave the profession entirely within one year. To combat this trend, hospitals and nursing education organizations have created new graduate nurse residency programs to serve as a bridge between the classroom and the hospital, better-supporting nurses and making the process easier and less daunting.

Under popular value-based care models, nursing rates are wrapped into the bigger hospital bill, making their contributions to business revenue invisible. Hospitals are rewarded for understaffing nurses because nurses are viewed as a cost in this financial model–no different than the gauze they use to wrap a wound or the IV pool they hang medications on.

Advocacy is woven deeply into the nurse practitioner role. It’s a part of the job that’s never finished. Advocacy can occur at a micro level, by advocating one-on-one for a particular patient, or at the macro level, by lobbying for policy changes; it’s often a mix of the two. For many NPs, advocacy is about an issue close to their heart, one connected to underserved patients who deserve additional support. For two NP experts, the issue is children and youth in foster care.

Advocacy is woven deeply into the nurse practitioner (NP) role. It’s a part of the job that’s never finished. Advocacy can occur at a micro level, by advocating one-on-one for a particular patient, or at the macro level, by lobbying for policy changes; it’s often a mix of the two. For many NPs, advocacy concerns a particular issue close to their heart, one connected to underserved patients who deserve additional support. For Dr. Felesia Brown, the issue is health equity.

The healthcare community is a partnership between scientific research and clinical practice. For most of modern history, both arenas have been dominated by physicians. But as the healthcare workforce has expanded and the interprofessional care team emerged, nurse practitioners (NPs) have proven to be vital in delivering healthcare services in America.

Recent survey results show that a quarter to half of nurses feel emotionally drained, used up, fatigued, and burned out several times a week, or even every day (NCSBN 2023). Nearly a fifth of the current nursing workforce has stated their intent to leave the profession by 2027, with a significant portion of those statements coming from nurses under 40. With an aging population and an ongoing need for healthcare services, America can’t afford to lose this much of its vital nursing workforce.

Nurse practitioners and other nursing professionals operate in a diverse landscape of cultures and languages. Understanding a patient’s cultural background and language proficiency is essential to effective healthcare delivery. It fosters mutual respect and trust and enhances patient satisfaction and adherence to treatment plans. However, not all nurses are aware of the importance of cultural and linguistic awareness.

Each year, the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) awards its Nursing Continuing Professional Development (NCPD) Premier Award™ to accredited organizations that demonstrate excellence in NCPD. Presented to one or more fully accredited programs each year, the award recognizes recipients for a two-year period.