The
Washington Post August 12, 1029 issue contained an article written by an ICU
nurse. She discussed her hesitation and
indecision to write a living will, yet she sees the agony when families of
patients under her care do not have one.
According to her information based on a 2017 study, only one-third of
Americans have any sort of advanced directives. And this statistic includes
health care professionals.So why is their such a gap between thinking about advanced directives and actually creating them?
“The first barrier to advanced-care planning is often understanding what is involved…. An advance directive is a document that usually includes two separate elements: naming a health-care surrogate and creating a living will.”
The author points out the difficulty of looking at a form that may not have any bearing on the patient’s condition. When a person is healthy and creating a living will, fantasizing about what may happen in the future can be a useless exercise. The suggestion is made to appoint a surrogate or health care power of attorney with whom you can talk to about what you really want and about what’s really important to you when you are facing end of life decisions.
Another barrier to creating the document or discussing the issues with family is fear of talking about death. So how do we overcome the fear? Perhaps by “Framing end of life planning as a service to loved ones…” The author of the article filled out “Five Wishes” which is an online document. She named a health care proxy and two backups. She then wrote she did not want her life to be artificially prolonged by machines. She then had 2 friends witness the document which was legally necessary in her state and she put the form in her file cabinet.
The important element is she has shared the location of the document with the important people in her life. It’s great if one takes the steps to create the documents only to hide the documents where no one will find them.
If you would like to read to entire article, look for “I’m an ICU nurse. I know I need an end-of-life directive. So why can ‘t I bring myself to write it?” by Andrea Useem, August 12, 2019, The Washington Post.
What are your thoughts about this dilemma? Do you have advanced directives and a health care proxy?
Photo by Andy 'Thrasher
Poignant post, Naomi. This is a topic I've been thinking about. I do have a directive, but it may be out of date, and was drawn up in a state I no longer live in. As I think about things though, I realize that there are lots of situational factors impossible to fathom. No, in the overall scheme of things, I do NOT want my life to be prolonged. But what if I'm in an accident and have an excellent prognosis for full recovery? What if, for example, somewhere down the line a pacemaker battery fails and simply needs to be replaced? None of us can say what we'd choose in temporary circumstances like that, especially if we're in generally good health, mentally and physically.
ReplyDeleteSo, I suppose we must trust our designated surrogate(s) to make a decision in line with our thinking and make sure they know what that is.
BTW, at least one hospital in my area has a non-denominational chaplain who is there to help people work through such decisions.