The federal Patient Self-Determination Act of 1990, which took effect on Dec. 1, 1991, requires hospitals to inform patients of their rights to make decisions about their health care. Upon admittance, patients are now asked if they have advanced directives, which are legal documents such as living wills and durable powers of attorney for health care, that specify choices for future health care.
Tricia Burleson, a nurse clinician at Lake Forest Hospital, said advanced directives can be considered ”gifts to your loved ones.
”It`s such a comfort for people to know what kind of care their mother or father wants,” Burleson said. ”Often there`s disagreement between siblings about what kind of care should be provided, but when people have advanced directives, it makes things so much easier.”
The living will allows patients to describe their wishes about discontinuing death-delaying procedures should they become terminally ill. The document has a very narrow scope and is effective only when a person has a terminal condition.
The durable power of attorney for health care is much more flexible. It gives another person the right to make health-care decisions for you when you`re unable to do so yourself.
According to Carol Working, a social worker at Lake Forest Hospital, discussing health-care wishes with loved ones before entering a hospital is important. ”It`s very difficult when you suddenly have to make a decision about what you want,” Working said. ”It`s important for people to start thinking about these issues before a crisis occurs.”
Working speaks from experience. It was nearly a year ago that her brother was being kept alive on a ventilator. By the time he had deteriorated to the point where breathing assistance was necessary, he was too confused to decide whether he wanted to continue treatment. Because he had not made his intentions explicitly known to his sister, he remained connected to the machine for 10 days before he died.
”It was a terrible time,” Working said. ”I kept thinking that if he had just told me for sure what he wanted everything would have been so much easier. Instead here I was trying to second guess. It was very, very difficult.”
For more information on advanced directives, contact your local hospital.
