Analysis of the health advocacy concept from the perspective of the evolutionary method.
Odaleia de Oliveira Farias, Maria Gabriela Miranda Fontenele, Francisca Elisângela Teixeira Lima and 3 others
PMID 37882698WHAT IT FOUND
Health advocacy is an intentional action done with individuals and groups, especially those facing health inequities, to improve health, well-being, and empowerment.
It is broader than patient advocacy or nursing advocacy.
Key findings
01Health advocacy is an intentional action carried out jointly with individuals and groups, especially those facing health inequities, to preserve or improve health, well-being, and empowerment.
02The concept is broader than patient advocacy because it is not limited to sick patients and can address individual cases as well as community causes.
03Nursing-focused health advocacy was described mainly at the micro level for individual patients, while macro-level examples included changing access to gender-affirming care.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This is a concept analysis, not a patient or nursing practice study. It does not test whether health advocacy changes access, equity, health, or well-being. The search included only original, reflective, or review studies in Portuguese, English, or Spanish and excluded protocols and unavailable full texts, so relevant sources may have been missed. The final definition and examples depend on the authors' interpretation of the selected literature. It discusses nursing advocacy but did not evaluate how nurses deliver it or what outcomes result.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat this concept analysis as evidence that health advocacy improves patient care or outcomes. It analysed selected articles to define and distinguish the term, and it reported no patient outcomes.