Patient Service Level Advocate Paper

As a patient service level advocate of eight years, I analyze any ethical issues and apply appropriate actions. Service-level advocate attempts to resolve patient issues, working in collaboration with the facility Patient Advocate to help identify opportunities for improvement. I respect the rights and privacy of patients and staff to protect their confidential information verbally, electronically, and print communications, while continuing to demonstrate leadership in identifying by responding to any ethical issues that may impact patient care. An incident occurred with one of the veterans, which caused the Root Cause Analysis committee to get involved. The veteran with kidney failure was told by the vascular surgeon not to use his “right arm” for any blood pressures, needle stick, or IV use, due to pending surgery for an arterial venous fistula (AVF) placement. The veteran was sent to the lab for a blood draw and shared this information with the lab tech prior to the needle stick. Somehow, the lab tech did not see a noticeable vein in the left arm (non-surgical) to obtain blood that day, therefore, thought by obtaining the blood from the “do not touch” right arm would be “ok” to use since surgery was in the near future. The veteran explained several times, he was told not to use that arm. The veteran felt his rights have been …show more content…
This is similar to someone who has an alert in the system for MRSA or Police alerts. Having a vascular access alert in the system provides staff with immediate notification that the veterans have a vascular access, whether it is a catheter or fistula in their extremity that needs cautioned. My aim is to become an advocate for the patients by ensuring nursing staff are educated on applicable medical issues. I have maintained all ethics training courses that are required by the