An Important Decision for Patients
If you were hurt or unable to express your wishes, what type of medical treatment would you want? That’s the basic reason for creating what is known as an Advance Directive. You may also hear the terms Advance Healthcare Directive, Personal Directive or Advance Decision.
The decisions regarding your end-of-life care are important to share now with your family and friends. Creating an advance directive allows your wishes to be carried out and avoid confusion by health care professionals.
The decisions come down to whether you want to accept or refuse medical care in various circumstances. Some of the decisions commonly addressed in advance directives are:
Resuscitation if Breathing or Heartbeat Stops, Use of Feeding Tubes/Nutritional & Hydration Assistance, Organ Donation, Tissue Donation, Use of Dialysis Machines, Use of Breathing Machines/Mechanical Ventilation.
Advance directives take several forms. They all help to share how a patient wants to be treated medically if they lose the ability to speak for themselves. Depending on the type of advance directive, an agent is often appointed to make decisions on behalf of the patient.
Living Wills
A living will is the oldest form of advance directive. It is a legal document that describes the kind of medical treatments a patient wants if they becomes fatally injured or terminally ill. Living wills are quite popular, and by 2007, 41% of Americans had completed a living will. One detriment of a living will is that it does not allow the patient to designate a proxy to make decisions for him.
Health Care Proxy
A durable power of attorney (DPA), or health care proxy, is another kind of advance directive. A DPA allows a patient to choose someone to make health care decisions on their behalf should they become incapacitated and unable to make medical decisions. The appointed proxy has the same rights to request or refuse treatment that the individual would have if still capable of making and communicating health care decisions.
Do Not Resuscitate Order
One last type of an advance directive is a do not resuscitate (DNR) order. A DNR is a request stating that should a patient’s heart stop beating no one should attempt resuscitation efforts. Without a DNR, hospitals will always attempt resuscitation.
Any person that is at least 18 years old can prepare an advance directive. By creating an advance directive, a patient can spare others the stress of making life and death decisions about the patient while they are incapacitated. Even someone in good health may want to consider writing an advance directive. After all, an accident or serious illness can happen suddenly.