Developing a Health Advocacy Campaign

Developing a Health Advocacy Campaign

Population Health Issue

The significant portion of the population is suffering from life threatening disease cancer. It desires not only the treatment of the disease through the cancer drugs but also in need of alleviation from emotional distress. Cancer is life threatening condition and its treatment also makes the condition of patient worse.

Disease and Population

Cancer is the complicated genetic disease. The major cause of cancer is the factors of environment. The cancer causing substance known as carcinogen can be there in the air, water, chemicals, food the rays of the sun to which people exposed. More than 90 % of cancers occur in epithelial cells. Infection may also lead to cancer. Research studies predicted that the number of cancer patients will become 20 million by the year of 2020 (Alison, 2001).

Besides the reasons, the occurrence of cancer is most frequent in the ageing people. The unhealthy life style, use of tobacco, cigarette smoking and modern diet like low fiber content and high fat diet raising the incidence of cancer rapidly.The treatment of cancer is expensive and cannot be bear physically by the patient easily. Therefore, cancer patients are in need of nursing advocacy.

Advocacy Plan for Cancer Patients

The oncology nurses advocate the patients of cancer in order to reduce their distress and motivate them for the therapy. Oncology nurses encourage the welfare of their cancer patients by examining the physical and psychological distress of the patients. Nurses evaluate the plans for care particularly in the early stage of the illness route. Moreover, the literature has instructed the Oncology nurses to inform patients regarding the management of cancer earlier to the initial therapy as well as throughout the management of cancer to endorse the informed consent. Besides this, nurses must not to investigate the information of patients plus preferences of self-determination.

However, nurses for cancer patients do advocate for their patients by giving and improving the awareness of needs of patients and preferences in consideration of the healthcare system. The advocacy of the nurse to the patients can be observed to some extent as the action in response to the care of patients and preferences of self-determination.

The advocacy activities to the patient of oncology nurses are same to those advocacy activities which are defined in the framework of practical pain care. The only difference is the more attention paying on the commencement of the sickness trajectory. On the other hand, the needs of care and self-determination, needs of information as well as advocacy requirements of patients with cancer fluctuate throughout the trajectory of illness. These desires should be evaluated and systematically facilitated to the cancer patients.

The nurses focus on factors like economic matters as the costs of chemotherapeutic drugs is high and management of nausea and vomiting. Nausea and vomiting are post-treatment effects of cancer therapy. Nurses counsel the patients regarding each aspect of treatment and post treatment conditions (Rajalin, 2011).

Skills of Advocacy

Skills of advocacy involve the collaboration, communication, problem solving and ...