Health advocacy: bringing clarity to educators through the voices of physician health advocates.

BACKGROUND

Although advocacy is a value that is acknowledged among care providers, the definition of advocacy and the competencies associated with it vary among those who teach it.

METHOD

Grounded theory analysis was used on case studies of eight physicians identified as being responsive to community needs.

RESULTS

Community-responsive physicians were found to engage in health advocacy by working with, or on behalf of, their patients/communities through being either (a) informants-providing information to those who can enact change, or (b) change agents-initiating, mobilizing, and organizing ways to systematically modify policies or procedures that negatively effect patients/communities. Issues of health advocacy as they relate to the determinants of health and health promotion are highlighted.

CONCLUSIONS

This article provides an enhanced understanding of health advocacy and proposes an operational definition of health advocacy that may allow for an enhanced method of teaching health advocacy to learners.