Developing a Health Advocacy Campaign

Developing a Health Advocacy Campaign (continued): Ethical Considerations
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Developing a Health Advocacy Campaign (continued): Ethical Considerations
Advocacy is in actual fact the cornerstone of nursing – nursing practitioners advocate for the profession, for causes, and even for patients. Motivated by ethical and moral principles, advocacy is aimed at influencing policies by arguing or pleading within social, economic and political systems, and institutions, for a cause or idea that could result in decisions in resource allocation which promote nursing, nurses and all of healthcare (Masse & Williams-Jones, 2012). The ANA Nursing Code of Ethics reinforces the position of nursing as an advocate and describes the way in which professional associations advocate for the nurses, the profession of nursing, as well as healthcare for American people. This paper provides an explanation of the ethical dilemmas that may come up during the advocacy campaign and how these ethical dilemmas would be resolved. The ethics law and reporting requirements which are applicable to the advocacy campaign are described. Furthermore, this paper provides an evaluation of the special ethical challenges which are unique to the population being addressed; that is, returning veterans and their families.
Health promotion is an intrinsically value-laden enterprise which could result in significant ethical dilemmas. As such, ethical reflection on the part of the health advocacy professionals is of major importance so as to negotiate and understand the potentially conflicting fundamental interests and values of the diverse stakeholders for instance citizens, policy-makers, and professions who are involved in health promotion. In health campaigning, dilemmas require attention given that decisions made could affect both the image of profession and the success of policy initiatives, at times with trade-offs between these (Martin, 2012). Provision 8 of the ANA Code of Ethics specifies that nurses work in partnership with other health care providers and the public to promote international, national, and community efforts to meet health needs (American Nurses Association, 2011).
Ethical dilemmas during advocacy campaign
Whether or not to acknowledge vested interests: if the public health campaigner is backed or sponsored by powerful groups who have stakes in the measures that are being advocated, the ethical dilemma is whether or not the health advocacy campaigner should acknowledge the possible influence of these powerful groups. If they must be acknowledged, how should they be acknowledged? According to Hanks (2013), it is common for others to attack the role of vested interests. As such, it could be predicted that those who oppose the health advocacy campaign would claim that government departments, corporations and professional or religious groups, if they profit from policies or fund research, are a source of bias (Hanks, 2013). In resolving this dilemma, vested interests would not be mentioned if they are on my side and claim that the campaign and the campaigner are objective and therefore it does not really matter whether or not organizations provide funding or perks. This dilemma could also be reso...