Ethical advocacy in the end-of-life nursing care: A concept analysis

Abstract

Aim: This concept analysis was conducted to identify and define the features and functions of ethical advocacy in the end-of-life nursing care.

Background: Ethical advocacy is key to the role of the nurse in delivering quality and competent care. Despite this, the dimensions of this concept are poorly understood.

Design/data source: Databases such as Google Scholar, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, and PubMed were searched systematically. To search these databases, the following keywords were used: "patient advocacy," "nursing," "ethics," "end-of-life care," and their combinations.

Review methods: Walker and Avant's method was utilized as a comprehensive review of the literature to explore how ethical advocacy in nursing can be used to improve the quality of care.

Results: The defining attributes of the concept of ethical advocacy included adhering to ethical principles of nursing, championing social justice in the provision of healthcare, safeguarding and defending patient's rights by applying collective wisdom, and involving hospital ethics committees. Antecedents are organizational and personal power and ethical leadership. The optimal consequence of ethical advocacy can be getting the best ethical governance.

Conclusion: Based on this analysis, the concept of ethical advocacy is one of the most important roles for nurses which requires their awareness of this concept.

Keywords: concept analysis; end-of-life care; ethics; nursing; patient advocacy.