Advance Directives

Advance Directives

Juanita Gonzalez

Professor Deryl Gulliford

DeVry University

Advance Directives

With so many legal and ethical dilemmas facing healthcare professionals, one that can be a difficult subject is the topic of advance directives. Advance directives are documents that are filled out by a patient and state the type and amount of care or effort they want given in the last stages of their life. These legally binding documents set the guidelines for physicians while treating their terminally ill patients. Without advance directives, appropriate measures that sustain life will be carried out regardless of verbal wishes of a patient. Advance directives helps provide patients dignity and grace in their final days and without these documents, physicians can face many ethical and legal woes.

There are several different forms of advance directives. The first, and probably most commonly heard term is a living will. A living will is a written legal document that defines the wishes of a person in the event that the patient becomes seriously ill and cannot communicate such wishes. These documents clarify exactly what forms of medical treatment and to what extent life-sustaining treatments should be applied. Some examples of such treatments include, withholding of CPR, endotracheal intubation and/or advanced airway management, administration of antibiotics, feeding tubes, cardiac resuscitation and surgery ("Stateside legal living,”). The living will instructs a physician on how to properly carry out a patient wishes.

Another form of advance directive, and usually a part of living will is a Do Not Resuscitate, DNR. In the event a patient’s heart stops beating or stops breathing, a DNR will notify medical professionals not perform CPR. A DNR strictly refers to CPR treatment and does not relate to other life sustaining medical treatments. Many elderly patients and terminally ill patients, who are admitted to nursing homes and/or hospice, are...