The Fundamentals of Advocacy: Designing an online learning course for health and social care staff

BACKGROUND: The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) develops national standards for health and social care services and tools to assist with implementation. In 2023, HIQA developed resources to help health and social care staff support advocacy in their work. This followed a recommendation of the COVID-19 Nursing Homes Expert Panel Report (2020). As this project is founded in human rights-based practice and in lessons learned from COVID-19, it is relevant across health and social care. OBJECTIVES: We wanted to know: 1. the barriers to advocacy in health and social care services; 2. how best to address this. We found knowledge and understanding of advocacy to be a significant barrier, and therefore developed an online course. The course was informed by focus groups with health and social care staff, service-users and inspectors, and by user-testing. The objectives are that learners understand: • what advocacy is • the role of health and social care staff in advocacy • how to support people to have their will and preference met • the boundaries of their role as advocates, including any conflicts of interest • how to raise awareness of independent advocacy services, and when to support people to access these services. The course includes case studies, interviews and self-assessment. We are measuring impact through surveys, interviews and focus groups. RESULTS: Through stakeholder engagement and a review of evidence we identified knowledge and understanding as a significant barrier to advocacy. Since the course was launched in April 2023, 90% of participants report that, based on the course, they will make changes to the way that they work. A selection of these participants will be interviewed after six months to measure impact. CONCLUSIONS: Our research identified a need to improve knowledge and understanding of advocacy among health and social care staff. The course evaluations to date have shown that the course has achieved this. KEY MESSAGES: • There is a need to improve knowledge of advocacy among health and social care staff. HIQA has developed an online learning course to address this, informed by extensive stakeholder engagement. • Advocacy is about supporting and empowering people to communicate their will and preference, secure their human rights, or represent their interests.