Breaking it down

Here are my top five reasons why providing a nurse advocate as an employee benefit is a win-win-win when it comes to helping employees navigating the highly matrixed American health care system.

• When brokers offer this "nurse concierge" service as part of their employee health care offerings, it helps employers bring added value to their employees. Satisfied employees perform better.
• Nurse advocates help patients focus on getting better, which helps both the enrolled employee and the employer from a productivity standpoint.
• Professional nurses can listen to both employees and employers, breaking down barriers, especially around sensitive health-related information.
• Nurse advocates as a benefit also helps with employee retention, differentiating employers from competitors, and catching the attention of potential and existing employees.
• Beyond physical health matters, enrolled employees can also count on nurse advocates to provide expert guidance and compassionate support and assistance with mental health and addiction-related issues. Unfortunately, these are very prevalent today, and often underdiagnosed.

Here are a few great examples of advocacy in action.

In one recent situation, a patient diagnosed with prostate cancer was preparing for the first part of the treatment process. These initial steps, which include finding the right specialists and oncologists, are a critical part of the treatment journey. In this case, the patient's primary care physician referred him to a local resource, but he was unhappy with the care. But with the help of a nurse advocate, the patient got a second opinion at a nationally renowned academic medical center with specific expertise, and transferred his care to the consulting specialist.  He had surgery there and is now doing well and expected to make a full recovery.

Another story from the field involves an employee undergoing an appendectomy, which turned into four months in the hospital with complications and an eventual sepsis diagnosis. The patient thankfully survived — something that would not have happened without her nurse advocate by her side (literally) —  to support her and her family and get them both through an unexpected, life-threatening health care emergency.

Helping clients stand up and out

One of the nation's largest providers of on- and off-campus student housing relies on nurse advocates to help fulfill its promise to customers. According to Helen Marshall, executive vice president of Human Resources, "Parents of college students expect that our team will take care of their children; to do that, we need to look after our employees like family, as well."

"Nurse advocates don't just provide information or a list of providers; they look after patients, schedule appointments, research treatment options," Marshall says. "All that work is done before our employees set foot in a doctor's office. In addition, the nurse will then go with them to see the physician."

This "unique benefit" is gaining traction and becoming more available and accessible every day. Nurse advocates are a welcomed support system for enrolled employees and their families in many industries. They are a trusted source for everything from an initial diagnosis and developing treatment plans, to liaising with doctors and insurance companies, to helping schedule appointments and providing patients and their family members help along the way.

The value a nurse advocate brings reminds me of a quote from Florence Nightingale, "The very first requirement in a hospital is that it should DO THE SICK NO HARM." In my opinion, she wasn't stating the obvious, rather a core principle that health care professionals need to be reminded of each day; and nurses are most often the ones doing the reminding.

Betty Long, RN, MHA, is the President/CEO and Founder of Guardian Nurses Healthcare Advocates and a nationally recognized expert and speaker on patient advocacy. As a registered nurse since 1986, she has experience in clinical, management, and consulting capacities. In addition, she has a long history of healthcare advocacy with special expertise in critical care, long-term care, and geriatric care management.