Nursing advocacy during a military operation

Advocacy is an essential component of the registered nurse's professional r ole, yet experts provide no consistent definition of advocacy. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of military nurses as they eng age in advocating practices and to describe their shared practices and comm on meanings. Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology, provided the framework and method for this study. Twenty-four U.S. Army nurses were individually interviewed and the researcher kept interview observational notes. The cons tant comparative method of analysis was used The stories of these nurses re vealed one constitutive pattern-safeguarding-and four related themes. The t hemes were advocating as protecting, advocating as attending the whole pers on, advocating as being the patient's voice, and advocating as preserving p ersonhood. One conclusion was that military nurses must be prepared for the important safeguarding role They must be coached in how to deal with other members of the health team on the patient's behalf.