Background: The concept advocacy is particularly appropriate in the perioperative nursing environment since anesthesia often puts the patient in an unconscious state. The patient has to rely on the nurse anesthetist to speak up for him/her, and for maintaining his/her dignity and safety.
Method: In order to describe the nurse anesthetists’ perspective of advocacy in nurse anesthesia care data was collected through individual interviews with a purposive sample of 20 Swedish nurse anesthetists. The interviews were analysed by means of qualitative content analysis.
Findings: The main theme, “Holding the patient’s life in my hand”, was the Swedish nurse anesthetists’ perception of advocacy. It embraced providing a dignified care, providing a safe care and a moral commitment. Moreover advocacy included an ethical, moral and medical responsibility in relation tothe patient.
Conclusion: Advocacy has vast impact and influences the nurse anesthetist’sprofessional role. The findings reveal that by practicing advocacyin their daily work e.g. when protecting patients from harm and treating them respectfully;the nurse anesthetists’contributes to the wellbeing andhealth of the individual. A humanistic work environment where the nurse anesthetistscan make their voices heard and where their opinion regarding the patient’s best is taken seriously is desirable since all health professionals have to have focusedon the patient’s best.