The Five Core Qualities of an Effective Patient Advocate
The role of a patient advocate is to negotiate, mediate and intercede on behalf of another person in order to achieve a specific outcome for that person.
The five core qualities of an effective patient advocate are:
- Assertiveness
- Empathy
- Communication
- Neutrality
- Access to Knowledge
Assertiveness
Assertiveness does not mean being bossy! Assertiveness, in the context of patient advocacy, refers to the capacity to:
- Identify an outcome or result that you want to achieve;
- Identify what you need to do in order to achieve that outcome; and
- Be confident enough to go out and do your best to achieve it, with the minimum level
of conflict and disharmony.
Empathy
In order for you to achieve an improved health outcome for a patient, the patient must feel that they can trust you and that you are ‘with them’ on their health journey. This requires empathy. Empathy can be defined as “the ability to imagine oneself in another’s place and understand the other’s feelings, desires, ideas and actions. In other words, empathy is the ability to walk in another person’s shoes.
Communication
A key quality of a patient advocate is to be able to communicate. Effective communication, in the context of patient advocacy, is ‘two ways’ – there must be effective communication from you towards the patient and health providers, but you must also be able to listen and absorb the communication from others.
Neutrality
Neutrality means an advocate is aware of the sunglasses they are wearing and the potential effect of their lens on the specific case that they are working on at any given time.
Neutrality also means that an advocate is free of all external influences of or from the health system. The advocate is not in receipt of any commercial advantage (financial or otherwise) from the health system. They have no other ‘master to serve’, only the patient who they are assisting.
Access to Knowledge
To be an effective advocate, you do not need to be an ‘expert’ on the health system. This may seem incongruous, as many people believe that a patient advocate must be an expert. Some private patient advocates will possess specialised knowledge in relation to the health system, or certain aspects of it, however this is not the most important quality of an effective patient advocate. In fact, specialised knowledge can be a serious limitation as it can remove their neutrality due to conscious and subconscious ‘beliefs’ about what is, or can be, possible for a patient.
The task of a patient advocate is to address a specific issue for a specific patient. This requires you to be able to determine the nature of the patient’s problem and develop a strategy to resolve that problem. Not having ‘industry knowledge’ can mean that you will have a more open mind and can seek solutions that may not generally be considered possible or available. In other words, the absence of knowledge can open the door for a new creative solution or lateral approach to a patient’s problem or situation.

Extracts from:
“The Patient Advocate Handbook: How to find and use your voice in healthcare”
Authors: Liz and Claire Crocker
Balboa Press 2019
Available in hard copy or electronic versions from resellers
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