Planning Ahead
This is the person you appoint to make decisions if you can't speak for yourself.
What is a healthcare proxy or medical power of attorney?
This is a treatment to keep someone alive by supporting breathing when the lungs aren't working.
What is mechanical ventilation?
This document lets you appoint someone to manage your finances if you become incapacitated.
What is a durable power of attorney for finances?
This type of care is often provided at home or in a facility to support quality of life near the end.
What is hospice care?
Writing this can help share your life story or important messages with loved ones.
What is a memoir or legacy letter?
This document outlines your wishes for medical care if you become unable to communicate.
What is an advance directive or living will?
If you don't want to be resuscitated after your heart stops, you can request this.
What is a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order?
This paper specifies how your body should be handled after death.
What is a funeral or burial directive?
A comfort measure used to relieve pain without curing the disease.
What is symptom management or pain control?
These can be given to family or friends as a way to remember you.
What are keepsakes or memory items?
Talking about these with your family helps ensure your wishes are known and respected.
What are end-of-life wishes?
This type of care focuses on relief from pain and symptoms rather than curing illness.
What is palliative care?
This is the legal document that proves your death and is required for many end-of-life processes.
What is a death certificate?
This approach respects your cultural, spiritual, or personal preferences at the end of life.
What is personalized or holistic care?
A planned event to honor and remember someone after they pass away.
What is a memorial or celebration of life?
This ethical principle guides honoring a patient's advance directives even when the healthcare team disagrees with the decisions.
What is respect for autonomy?
As the provider if you answer this question with a yes then your patient would qualify for hospice care.
Would I be surprised if this patient died in the next 6 months?
In addition to advance directives, this document often guides organ donation decisions at end of life.
What is the donor registry or organ donation consent form?
This breathing pattern, often seen near death, involves periods of rapid breathing followed by apnea.
What is Cheyne-Stokes respiration?
This therapeutic intervention encourages patients to express unfinished business or forgiveness before death.
What is dignity therapy?
When a patient lacks decision-making capacity and no surrogate is available, this ethical framework helps guide care decisions in the patient's best interest.
What is the best interest standard?
This type of care in children explains they can receive life saving treatment while also on hospice care due to the Affordable Care Act.
What is concurrent care?
This law, enacted in many U.S. states, protects clinicians who act in good faith when following advance directives from legal liability.
What is the Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA) or state-specific advance directive laws?
This comprehensive approach integrates physical, psychological, social, and spiritual care tailored to the patient and family.
What is holistic or total pain management?
This interdisciplinary team member often facilitates spiritual care and helps patients explore meaning at the end of life.
Who is a chaplain or spiritual care provider?