The Importance of Self-Advocacy In Pediatric Home Care Nursing

Self-advocacy is the practice of standing up for yourself and your interests. As a Pediatric Home Care Nurse, it may feel difficult to advocate for your own needs when your job is all about caring for others in need. However, to keep yourself, your fellow nurses, and your patients safe, you must advocate for yourself, inside and outside the workplace. 

How to Advocate for Yourself

Express Your Needs Clearly

Whether you are speaking to a healthcare provider, another nurse, a doctor, or a patient and their family, you should follow these four steps:

• Be concise and specific 
• Control your emotions
• Use appropriate body language
• Practice active listening

It’s also important to determine the most appropriate way to have this conversation. Should it be in person, over the phone, through video chat, or through email?

Know Your Scope of Practice

The scope of practice determines what tasks a nurse is legally authorized to provide. If there is a situation where a provider asks you to do something outside of your scope of practice and you don’t speak up, you could hurt yourself not only physically but professionally. Make sure to read your state’s nursing scope of practice to understand what procedures and actions you can and should perform.

Find Support and Get Involved

Having support as a Pediatric Home Care Nurse can help inspire you to advocate for your needs. Write down a list of people you could go to for help whether it’s your manager, another nurse, a social worker, a nurse educator, or friends and family. Also, joining a nursing organization can help you connect with other nurses and help you gain more strategies on how to get your voice heard. 

What to Advocate for

Reasonable and Safe Working Conditions

All Pediatric Home Care Nurses should have access to safe staffing, proper training, technical support, and mental health support. 

Fair Pay and Compensation

Based on the market, Pediatric Home Care Nurses deserve adequate compensation for the essential medical services they provide. 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

All home healthcare organizations should promote fair treatment of all nurses no matter their culture, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, socio-economic status, and sexual orientation.

Policy Development

Pediatric Home Care Nurses should be involved in the policies that directly affect their working environments. Home healthcare organizations should encourage nurses to contact their State Legislature to share feedback and suggestions on older and newer policies. 

Thrive SPC Encourages Nurses to Use Their Voices

Thrive SPC’s Kansas Area Director Lynn Dalrymple partnered with lobbyist Amy Campbell to advocate for higher reimbursement rates in the state of Kansas. With support from former Medicaid Director Adam Proffitt and Thrive SPC nurses and families of patients, reimbursement rates rose from $21-22 an hour to up to $50 an hour. 

Advocacy is central to Thrive SPC’s mission and we will continue to support nurses so we can continue to have the brightest minds, the best technology, and the biggest hearts that provide high-quality clinical home care to medically fragile children.