In any healthcare setting, it’s normal to feel nervous, overwhelmed, or even intimidated.
Medical facilities themselves can appear cavernously large, clinical, and impersonal – an impression that’s often exacerbated when we’re experiencing conditions affecting our physical or mental health and our ability to focus or think straight. Medical staff are usually very busy, and in many cases, will be more technically qualified than you (at least in their field of expertise), which can also seem intimidating.
But whether you’re consulting a general practitioner or a nurse qualified through online MSN programs, being able to advocate for yourself in healthcare settings is extremely important. This article will take you through some strategies to put you in the best possible position for self-advocacy, as well as explain the benefits of asserting some agency over your own healthcare experience.
What is Medical Self-Advocacy?
It’s not uncommon, when seeking medical care or attention, to find ourselves leaving an appointment frustrated: feeling unseen, unheard, and incorrectly treated.
Advocating for yourself is a key tactic to both pre-empt and counteract this experience. Self-advocacy involves making a strong case, on your own behalf, for the medical diagnosis, treatment, or approach you feel would best be suited to the issues you’re being affected by. Despite this, many patients feel too shy, ill-informed, or even embarrassed to appear overly demanding. As a result, they’ll hesitate to self-advocate in medical settings.
But on the contrary, by being a deliberate and self-aware patient, you’re far from being “difficult” – you’re actually making life easier for those responsible for your treatment: both by taking the time to communicate effectively with them, but also by relieving them of some of the decision-making responsibility for the overall direction of your treatment.
Why Self-Advocate?
It’s a good question – in an ideal world, there would be no need to advocate for yourself in a medical setting: doctors would have infinite time, knowledge, and resources, and there would be no bias or regional difference in quality of care.
However, the reality is unfortunately very different. The truth is that even medical professionals with the best of intentions have limited time. They’re also used to speaking in medical jargon, so it can be hard to understand what they’re diagnosing you with. For this reason, it pays to know what you want out of a medical interaction – even if all you want is clarity.
Importantly, recent studies have found that different racial and ethnic groups experience varying qualities of care and allocation of national resources; women, transgender people, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds also experience frequent and disproportionate discrimination in healthcare settings. But even if you feel you aren’t being actively discriminated against, it pays to have knowledge and confidence on your side.
How to Go about it?
The key to effective self-advocacy in a medical setting is to make yourself feel as confident as you can. There are a few things you can do to help ensure this. Try bringing along a supportive person, for instance, so you don’t feel alone or outnumbered. Writing down any questions you had before your appointment, so you aren’t thinking on the spot, can help too. In a similar vein, try to articulate your own health condition to yourself in advance, so that you can more easily explain it to your doctor at your appointment.
Keep Learning – Stay Informed
Another central element of medical self-advocacy is almost universally applicable: knowledge is power. While no one is expecting you to be able to self-diagnose or self-medicate (indeed, such behavior is actively discouraged by medical professionals), it can be helpful to have at least a broad idea of your medical condition and treatment, as well as any current medical thinking around these aspects of your physical or mental health.
As well as preparatory work, remember that you can learn a lot from your physician, too. Yes, they may sometimes forget to explain some things to you in simple terms; the use of medical jargon can be second nature to someone with a doctoral degree. Remember to ask lots of questions, and write down the answers your physician provides concerning your medical diagnoses and treatment.
If Something’s Wrong, Speak up
The key point of advocacy? Speak up if you don’t like what’s happening. If you feel you’re being treated with discrimination or bias, there are things you can say to set the record straight. You may even want to consider changing your treating practitioner or getting a second opinion – you don’t need to keep suffering in silence.
That’s the main takeaway from this guide to medical self-advocacy: you, ultimately, have the right and the power to influence, guide, and shape your own medical treatment. You deserve to be treated fairly and with respect by everyone, including busy doctors.
