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HOW HAVE NURSES PRACTICED PATIENT ADVOCACY IN THE HOSPITAL CONTEXT? - A FOUCAULTIAN PERSPECTIVE

This study aimed to discover how nurses have exercised patient advocacy in the hospital context. A qualitative, exploratory-descriptive research was carried out at a university hospital in the South of Brazil. The respondents were 16 nurses, chosen through non-probable snowball sampling. For data collection, semi-structured interviews were conducted, recorded, transcribed and analyzed by discursive textual analysis and the Foucaultian philosophical reference framework. Two categories resulted from the discursive textual analysis: the real courage: exercise of advocacy mediated by open dialogue; strategies of resistance for the exercise of patient advocacy. It is concluded that professional stability and the institution's support help nurses to feel encouraged to exercise advocacy, even when facing with situations that are hard to deal with, using parrhesia and strategies of resistance to ensure the effective defense of the patients' interests.

Health advocacy; Nursing; Nursing, ethics; Power


Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Programa de Pós Graduação em Enfermagem Campus Universitário Trindade, 88040-970 Florianópolis - Santa Catarina - Brasil, Tel.: (55 48) 3721-4915 / (55 48) 3721-9043 - Florianópolis - SC - Brazil
E-mail: textoecontexto@contato.ufsc.br