How can you encourage patient advocates to learn and innovate?

Most of the times, being a patient advocate is not something you choose, it's something you're thrown into, usually by the health challenges of a loved one. So, in my opinon, you don't really find a niche. The niche has already found you as it's usually, the one related to the health challenge.

I can honestly agree with this!!! Patient advocacy found me and I would have never thought this would be my passion but i wouldn’t trade this for the world! Always researching and listening to feedback, networking and having like minded colleagues. Utilizing your resources is another outlet for advocacy! I love the education part of it. Both as an educator and as a patient. This role is ever changing and revolving, and one has to able to adapt!

I’m my experience, I have found that once I have discovered an area I am passionate about, ie Cardiovascular nursing, I become very interested in learning everything there is to know. I feel like the more knowledge I possess as a care provider, the better informed my patients can become as well as allowing myself to be a better advocate for my patients to ensure they are getting the best evidence based care.

Change mindset from being primary speaker to primary listener, take action to best of ability and find resources if available. Learn to fight with compassion

I can speak to the nursing profession with regarding to finding your niche. One of the greatest parts about nursing is the ability to experiment in different roles and adventures to see what you like, or don't like. After almost 10 years of working in a doctors office as a medical assistant, I did my own research and came to the conclusion that nursing is one of the most flexible professions. You can work as a nurse with an ADN, BSN, MSN, DNP, ARNP, CRNA, you can work for yourself as a nurse consultant, etc. And the greatest part about it is that if you find that you don't like a specific role within nursing, you can move into an entirely different area. Nursing truly is special in that regard.

Seeking feedback is indeed a very good strategy but it needs to be combined with other forms of learning like specialized patient advocacy courses, patient advocacy events and conferences etc. I believe feedback alone does not create the learning curve needed to become a patient advocate. One other thing worth mentioning in relation to feedback is that each person's response is based on their unique experience so you might want to take that into account when incorporating their feedback into your work.

I agree with this statement. While courses on patient advocacy are beneficial, one does not know if they are utilizing the tools that they have learned if they do not seek feedback. Feedback allows for self reflection so that we can improve ourselves and our abilities to advocate for our patients.

I agree being open and actively seeking feedback create a better patient advocate. We can learn so much from others and take those moments to grow and better impact others.

Being a patient advocate will require that the advocate map out their targeted community and get clear on the community they are serving and then implementing these tips.

This is great especially with technology, finding a community is much easier. There is power in numbers and knowing theres others dedicated to similar fields is rewarding and can help through different journeys in life.

This holds true in my nursing career. I hold so many interests in nursing and am always looking to challenge myself by seeking different job opportunities. I am a firm believer that the more knowledge one possesses, the more capable/confident they may be in helping patients.

I think this should be the golden rule in patient advocacy. It is probably one will fail more than he/she will succeed in patient advocacy so it's very important to embrace failure and learn from its lessons. Failure is the best teacher. "When you lose, don't lose the lesson" Dalai Lama

I agree we live and learn we must be open to moving forward and create better things from broken pieces. Always embracing the journey and being kind.

Life long learning is curiosity at its finest for patient advocates. Things are always evolving and we should always seek to find better ways to advocate and seek better changes for those we serve.