Types of Advance DirectivesThe living will. ... Durable power of attorney for health care/Medical power of attorney. ... POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) ... Do not resuscitate (DNR) orders. ... Organ and tissue donation.
An advance directive provides a clear understanding of your health care wishes before you become unable to voice them, and a durable power of attorney makes decisions for you that you can no longer make.
Advance directives are legally binding, so doctors have to follow them. False. Advance directives are legally recognized documents and doctors must respect your known wishes, but doctors can always refuse to comply with your wishes if they have an objection of conscience or consider your wishes medically inappropriate.
A specific and common example of an advance directive is a “do not resuscitate” order (or DNR), which guides care only if your heart stops beating (cardiac arrest) or you are no longer breathing.
But your family cannot override your living will. They cannot take away your authority to make your own treatment and care plans. In fact, you always retain the right to override your own decisions.
The patient is responsible for making sure an advance directive is followed.
Always remember: an advance directive is only used if you are in danger of dying and need certain emergency or special measures to keep you alive, but you are not able to make those decisions on your own. An advance directive allows you to make your wishes about medical treatment known.
If there is evidence to suggest the person has changed his or her mind— for example, if they have done something that goes against the advance directive—this would make the advance directive invalid.
An Advance Care Directive is a way to say what healthcare treatments you would like to have or refuse, should you be in a position where you are seriously ill or injured and unable to make or communicate decisions about your care and treatment.
The major drawback to an advanced directive is that it is a piece of paper. A doctor might not know of its existence or it might not be produced in time to be of much use. There's also a possibility it won't be honored if it's from another state.
If one family member is named as the decision-maker, it is a good idea, as much as possible, to have family agreement about the care plan. If family members can't agree on end-of-life care or they disagree with the doctor, your family might consider working with a mediator.
Controversy includes such matters as whether advance directives create more confusion than clarity about a patient's wishes, whether they can always be taken as expressing the true desires of a patient, and whether healthcare staff should always follow them.