Exploring Advanced Healthcare Directive Training
End-of-life care is an uncomfortable subject, even among healthcare professionals. However, Advanced Healthcare Directives (AHCDs) can be a powerful tool that empowers individuals to make informed choices about their medical care, even when they may be unable to communicate their wishes due to illness or incapacitation.
In this blog, we'll delve into the significance of advanced healthcare directives, their pivotal role in patient autonomy, and why training in this area is essential for healthcare professionals.
What Is an Advanced Healthcare Directive and Why Is It Important?
An advanced healthcare directive is a legal document that explains how an individual wants medical decisions to be made when they can’t communicate their wishes. They typically relate to end-of-life care but can be used during any medical emergency where the patient is incapacitated.
Advanced healthcare directives are also sometimes referred to as personal directives or medical directives.
There are two main types of advanced directives: durable powers of attorney and living wills. A durable power of attorney names a person who should make medical decisions on your behalf if you can’t. A living will authorizes or blocks specific types of medical care in advance. They typically address treatments like resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, tube feeding, and dialysis, but it’s also common for a living will to direct what can be done with your body immediately after death (organ/tissue donation or scientific study).
Advanced directives are important because they allow a patient’s preferences to be respected even when they can’t participate in the medical decisions that affect them. They can ease some of the stress on a patient’s loved ones by reducing uncertainty about how the patient would like to be treated.
The Legal and Ethical Aspects of an Advanced Directive
In the absence of a medical directive, state law typically dictates who is allowed to make medical decisions on your behalf. In most states, it’s your spouse, parents, or adult children (in that order).
Advanced directives supersede these laws, which is useful for people who prefer to assign this decision-making power to someone else, like a life partner outside of marriage, a specific parent or child, a sibling, a friend, a lawyer, or a physician.
Advanced directives are legally recognized rather than legally binding, so it’s not a guarantee that your wishes will be followed. Some medical situations are complex enough that the guidance of a living will is insufficient. In other cases, your advanced directive could go against a healthcare institution’s policy or accepted healthcare standards.
As a result, how advanced directives are applied can be complicated. It’s critically important for healthcare professionals to understand the nuances and their obligations. You need to learn how an advanced healthcare directive impacts your responsibilities toward your patient.
The Role of Nurses in Advanced Healthcare Directives
Nurses need to be educated on the subject of advanced healthcare directives because they’re responsible for day-to-day patient care. Moreover, their close relationship with patients and their loved ones means they’re often in a position to answer questions about end-of-life care in general and advanced healthcare directives, specifically.
A nurse’s discomfort or lack of knowledge on these subjects can complicate a patient’s experience during a very scary time in their lives.
Since research has shown that nurses aren’t as knowledgeable about advanced directives as they probably should be, there’s been a push for training on the subject.
Get Advanced Healthcare Directive Training Online
We offer IACET-authorized Advanced Healthcare Directive Training that will teach you about a patient’s right to self-determination, the types of advanced directives you might need to comply with, and the relevant TJC regulatory requirements. It’s online and self-paced so that you can learn when and where it’s comfortable.
