Not surprisingly, this mindset transfers to the clinic. By viewing our clinic encounters with the same lens of power dynamics, we get a more holistic approach to rheumatologic care. As an advocate, I can credibly relay to patients that I am working on fixing many of the problems that ail them that extend beyond their immediate health concerns. Having frank conversations about the many ways that I help patients has become an important tool in establishing and maintaining good rapport.
On a larger scale, the advocacy mindset is important in changing healthcare policies and regulations on other levels as well. Many of the same competencies needed to change the course of legislation and regulation are the same that can help change local hospital and clinic policies. Advocates learn how those complex systems interact with one another and consider how to implement, or de-implement, change while negotiating with various partners to minimize disruption. In my case, learning how to advocate enabled me to hone my own leadership skills.
Advocacy Is Hope
Lastly, advocacy rests upon hope. Only those who have the bravery to engage in hope can engage in advocacy themselves. If you turn on the news, or more likely, go to a news website, you may be inundated with stories that boil your blood. They are meant to do that because that leads to greater engagement, which translates to greater advertisement revenue. You may believe the state of governance in the U.S. is hopeless—that entire swaths of people are unwilling to even look at each other with a sense of common citizenship.
Yet my experience is that Washington is still largely a place where consensus is possible. When the right incentives present themselves, such as the approval of their constituents, issues may extend beyond left and right. I know it’s hard to imagine after decades of bitter discord, but the results of rheumatology advocacy speak for themselves. The rheumatology community has worked with leaders from all political perspectives to advance policies that meaningfully improve the lives of patients with arthritis and immune-related conditions.
Moreover, advocates come from all different walks of life and are united broadly by an altruistic desire to have a more efficient and equitable healthcare system for our patients. Without a doubt, they are realists aware of the odds, but they are also idealists who have confidence and faith in citizenry to make important changes. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that advocates rarely advocate solely for one topic. Advocates for policies and legislation that benefit people with arthritis and other rheumatic conditions are also passionate about the many other aspects of the world around them.
