“Effective communication with healthcare providers, making informed decisions about their care, and gaining strength through connections to others” are the key aspects of patient self-advocacy, ONS member Teresa Thomas, PhD, RN, assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing in Pennsylvania, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BC, AOCNS®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, in a conversation about how patients can self-advocate and how nurses can support them. You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0 Earn 1.25 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by November 25, 2024. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation. Upon completion of this activity, participants will report an increase in knowledge related to patient self-advocacy. Episode Notes Complete this evaluation for free NCPD. Oncology Nursing Podcast episodes: Episode 183: How Oncology Nurses Find and Use Credible Patient Education Resources Episode 197: Patient Learning Needs and Educational Assessments Thomas’s research articles: “I Was Never One of Those People Who Just Jumped Right In for Me”: Patient Perspectives on Self-Advocacy Training for Women With Advanced Cancer “I Pretty Much Followed the Law, and There Weren’t Any Decisions to Make”: A Qualitative Study of Self-Advocacy Experiences of Men With Cancer A Conceptual Framework of Self-Advocacy in Women With Cancer Symptom Burden and Self-Advocacy: Exploring the Relationship Among Female Cancer Survivors Teaching Patients With Advanced Cancer to Self-Advocate: Development and Acceptability of the Strong Together™ Serious Game Perspectives on Self-Advocacy: Comparing Perceived Uses, Benefits, and Drawbacks Among Survivors and Providers Patient Education vs. Patient Experiences of Self-Advocacy: Changing the Discourse to Support Cancer Survivors Thomas’s clinical trial: Efficacy of a Self-Advocacy Serious Game Intervention Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing article: Oncology Nurses’ Role in Promoting Patient Self-Advocacy Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing University of Wisconsin–Madison Center for Patient Partnerships American Society of Clinical Oncology National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From Today’s Episode “Effective communication with healthcare providers, making informed decisions about their care, and gaining strength through connections to others. That’s really how we define the key aspects of what patients do to advocate for themselves.” Timestamp (TS) 04:39 “At the end of the day, if a patient doesn’t feel like the care really is attuned to what is going on in their life and they don’t feel like they’re understood or appreciated, or their self-worth isn’t identified by their care team, then are we really patient-centered?” TS 06:32 “Really, patient self-advocacy is about making sure that your clinical care team knows what’s most important to you, even if the clinician doesn’t ask you, ‘What is it like at home?’ or ‘Tell me about your family,’ or ‘Tell me about what you’re looking forward to getting back to after treatment.’ Put that into the conversation where they understand exactly what your quality of life means to you and they understand what your main goals of treatment are.” TS 12:33 “When patients don’t have that voice to speak up, ask questions, and push a l