Difference Between Lobbyist And Advocate

The purpose of this post is to discuss the differences between a lobbyist and an advocate. Considering that a lobbyist is often considered a devil in disguise, attempting to wrongly influence a politician to their means, there arises a question as to how much of a difference there is as compared to a political advocate. For this post, I will compare the differences between a lobbyist, advocate, and political advocate, then decide which one of these the Institute of Medicine defines itself as. A lobbyist, as defined by Kenya Beard, is an attempt to influence specific legislation, that a group may or may not support so that the politician may make informative decisions in shaping policy (Beard, 2015). This provided information is regarded as

Advocacy can include activities such as public speaking, media campaigns, polling, and publishing research. Priest defines advocacy as meaning to plead the cause of another (Priest, 2015). As a nurse, we plead to the cause of our patients during their care, often speaking to the doctor in regards to their needs. If the patient needs an increase in their pain relief medication, we, the nurse, gathers other data such as when does it hurt, where does it hurt, and what can be done, besides medications, can we do to relieve the pain. With this data, we speak to the physician and come to an agreement as what may provide better pain relief whether increased dosage or activity level. A lobbyist and advocate have many similarities. They both have a goal to influence someone to look at their cause and agree that their cause is important. They both want people, whether politicians or the general public, to act and make choice that would benefit those who are lobbying or advocating. Where the difference comes in is who they are primarily speaking to. A lobbyist is more likely to communicate to influence a politician, where an advocate communicates through the

Overall, they both have their place and importance in educating those who are in charge of making important, often life changing decisions that can potentially affect thousands of people, if not a nation. Great things have happened through the efforts of lobbyists and advocates, as have questionable ones, and it is up to us to determine what we should believe and support, by listening closely to what they have to say.

Reference

Beard, K.V. (2015). Lobbying policymakers: Individual and collective strategies. In Mason,

D.J., Leavitt, J.K., Chaffee, M.W., Gardner, D.B., Hopkins Outlaw, F., & O'Grady, E.T., Policy and politics in nursing and health care (7th ed.) (pp 390-398). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.

Chard, R. (2013). The personal and professional impact of the future of nursing report. AORN

Journal, 98(3), 273-280.

Priest, C.S. (2015). Advocacy in nursing and health care. In Mason, D.J., Leavitt, J.K., Chaffee,

M.W., Gardner, D.B., Hopkins Outlaw, F., & O'Grady, E.T., Policy and politics in nursing and health care (7th ed.) (pp 30-37). St. Louis, MO: