Test Your Advocacy Skills

One Way to Test Your Advocacy Skills

Could you be a “good” patient advocate? Here is one way to find out.

In today's society of mixed opinions, what is your reaction? Are you angry at the people who don’t agree with you? Do you find yourself calling people who don’t agree with you names like idiots or stupid; quietly or aloud?

Have you blocked your friends from Facebook or no longer accept calls or invitations from people who don’t agree with you? Are you spending time proving you are right and they are wrong? Maybe you find something on the internet and then tell people who oppose your views that they are wrong.

Or, do you find yourself listening to people, radio and television shows that don’t share your belief or point of view? Maybe you engage people in conversation so you can hear what they have to say knowing it may be different than your point of view. Have you researched information that someone told you, to see if it is true and then keep this to yourself or share it once and move on?

Do you find yourself interested in what people who have different beliefs have to say?

If you can listen to others and know it may not agree with your values or beliefs, and not get angry or frustrated, you probably would be a good patient advocate.

You may be saying to yourself that when a patient makes a decision it doesn’t affect society, lives, the country or_____ you fill in the blank. That’s true. But by listening to what someone is saying, it helps to build a strategy and move forward not by emotion but instead by facts and clearly thinking. Who will listen when we speak out of anger and with words we don’t know are true? To help in a dialogue we need to be better listeners and maybe not try to change opinions unless we are armed with good facts and willing to listen to how others hear what we have to say.

This could be helpful whether we are speaking about politics or someone’s healthcare.

If the person you are caring for does not want a treatment or procedure you think is important, you can tell them over and over why it’s important through your experience or material you have read. If you don’t listen to why they say what they say or why they feel the way they do, you will continue talking to someone who is not listening and has learned to close you out.