Patients need proper care and protection and a patient advocate should be the first line of defense. A patient advocate is someone who advocates on behalf of a patient who; for the most part, she is unable to stand up for herself or advocate (as the need arises) to ensure her needs are met when she is in a hospital, care facility, or nursing home setting.

What does a patient advocate do?

1) A patient advocate provides comfort

It is normal to want company when you are well, even more so when you are sick and alone. It’s comforting to know that someone you know and trust is available and close by.

2) A patient advocate provides additional care

Care facilities are often understaffed and nurses are overworked. If the patient has an immediate need, such as the need to use the bathroom, a patient advocate can quickly get the attention of a nurse who may not be aware of the need. The defender can handle simple things like closing curtains for privacy, turning on a TV, picking up dropped objects, etc.

3) A patient advocate provides superior care

Who isn’t on their best behavior when they know someone else is watching? Of course, in today’s world there are some who don’t give a ‘penny’, but I think for most people, workers tend to do their best work when they know they’re working under a watchful eye. .

4) A patient advocate can provide an emergency response

If the patient has an adverse reaction to a medication and the nurses are out of the room, the patient advocate can get help right away.

5) A patient advocate provides eyewitness testimony

Things happen, abuse can and does happen. A patient advocate can document any misconduct by staff members that they witness (either in writing or caught on camera), which can be helpful in the event a lawsuit is filed against the facility or the workers involved. However, any concerns should first be raised with the management staff for them to be addressed. If management seems unconcerned or aloof, a small threat of a few public reviews can often spark a call to action.

Case in point…

Recently, my mother had a stroke and was admitted to the hospital. It so happened that there was a dark-skinned male nurse with a strong foreign accent. I just didn’t have a good feeling about him, which isn’t to say I’ve done anything wrong that I know of, but I’ve learned to trust your gut. Since I have heard many reports of patient and elder abuse, I wanted to be more vigilant when it came to my own mother. I thought a good policy would be to never allow a nurse to be alone with a patient, especially when the curtains are closed. I looked to see if this would be the case or not. It began that a nurse accompanied him when they attended to mom but at some point he was alone with her and that did not make me feel comfortable. I stayed close as much as I could. I couldn’t pinpoint anything definite like I said, but I still didn’t have a good feeling about him. The mother was soon moved to a different, more permanent room so that he would no longer be her nurse.

Along with her new accommodation, however, came a new team of nurses. Once again, multiple ethnic groups. The head nurse had a British accent and was very caring, patient and kind. The others were fine for the most part as well. However, a dark-skinned nurse came in at one point to present some medication in a small cup to my mother, and instead of helping my mother take the pills, she let my mother try to get them out with her fingers despite that he had poor coordination just having the punch. As a result, my mother ended up dropping the pills between the bed and the bed rail. The nurse stood there and watched my mom struggle to reach them until she finally stepped in and helped pull them out, put them back in the cup and give them to my mom! I was horrified, first because she didn’t help in the first place, and second because she didn’t go get some fresh medicine to take! I’m mad at myself for not standing up and saying something. She should have said something like, “If it was you in bed, would you want to take those meds? Or how would you feel if it was your mother? Please go get some new pills for her to take.”

Since I was my mother’s patient advocate, I slept in the room (if you can call it sleeping) and was glad to be available not only to her but to her roommate as well. When a patient needs the bath, she needs the bath! I was able to locate some help when needed in this regard. Also, my mother’s room only had a curtain partition. Her roommate had a machine with an IV attached. Based on my overheard conversation the nurses had with her roommate, the machine sounded an alarm every time bubbles entered the IV, which turned out to be quite frequent. The alarm would not go off until a nurse practitioner came and reset it. None of us could sleep with that thing constantly beeping, so every time she would wake me up and locate a nurse so we could all try to sleep. More than once he would walk out into the hallway and find no one in sight! I say to you…

After being away for a while, I returned to my mother’s room just in time to find her looking ill. I asked her if she was okay and she told me that she was not feeling well. I tried to get her to clear up and she had a haunted look on her face, she leaned over the bed, looked at the floor and then reached for the nearby sink. I figured she was needing to throw up, so I quickly slid the trash can next to her bed, where she quickly made use of it. When the nurses came back, I told them and they prescribed anti-nausea medication, but again they were not present at the time of her need. Imagine the mess that would have been if I hadn’t been there to help her!

In addition to the examples above, I also did a number of minor things, such as helping with the blanket cover, fixing the curtains for privacy, helping carry her water cup and straw to make sure she was comfortable.

I can also talk about the time I walked into the ER with a broken toe. I got the impression from how I was viewed and treated that the initial conclusion of most of the staff was that my toe was not broken and was just a nuisance. After check-in, a nurse told me to follow her into the exam room as she ran off like an express pony. I tried to keep limping as fast as I could while she was in pain, but she pushed away from her and turned a corner without even looking back. Granted, my toe didn’t look visually broken, but is that any reason to make me “walk like an Egyptian” down the long hallway? After the x-rays were reviewed, the attendant told me “you did a number on him.” Really? It would be nice if they treated you as if you DO know your own body.

I have experienced enough patient and hospital care firsthand to know that it is always a good idea to have an advocate there to help you and witness any quirks. Whenever I have a doctor’s appointment or hospital stay, I always try to have someone with me as a witness to how I was treated.

A warning about staying short or long term…

Before assuming the responsibility to act on behalf of a patient on a short-term or long-term stay. It is a good idea to find out from the people who work directly with the patient what they are and are not allowed to do. You can avoid violating company policy and a possible lawsuit if you act in an unauthorized manner with someone who is not in your designated care. This is especially important if you are not an immediate family member or if you are coming in after the fact to be a patient advocate.