HSM 542 Week 8 Final Exam Questions and Answer elaborations | 100% CORRECT | DeVry University

HSM 542 Week 8 Final Exam (CO C) Discuss why it is important to have a patient complete an advanced directive upon admission to a hospital regardless of their age or health condition. Disc uss why so few patients have an advanced directive on file prior to being hospitalized and the legal implications if one is not completed before a medical procedure. List 2 situations where an advanced directive may be challenged on the basis of ethical OR legal reason. Your Answer: “[A] competent patient has the right to consent (or refuse to consent) to care unless her or others’ safety requires it” (Showalter, 2017, pg. 83). However, when a patient is no longer competent, an advanced care directive becomes a valuable tool for patients, their families and medical professionals. These documents help patients to describe the type of care that they wish to receive for their end-of-life care should they become incapacitated. These directives also provide guidance to family members and medical professions about what the patient wants. When these types of decisions are made in advance, it creates less uncertainty for family members and loved ones who are more able to support the patients’ decision. Sadly however, the majority of people do not have any advanced care directives in place. A major problem with advanced care directives is that they are underutilized. According to the Perelman School of Medicine (which conducted a study in 2017), researchers found that “63% of American adults have not completed one . . . [o]nly 29.3% had completed a living will that contained specific end-of-life care wishes, and 33.4% had designated a healthcare power of attorney”. The study also found that patients with chronic diseases and older patients tended to have them in place, versus healthier, younger patients. Why is this the case? The main issues is simple – people do not want to think about death especially their own. Then to add to that, they do not want to speak to their families about it either. Another issue lies with the difficulty in understanding the perceived complicated terminology around the issue. A striking number of people fail to utilize advanced medical directives, leaving their end-of-life treatment preferences as an unfortunate mystery. Decisions will be made for their care without their input and that care may not be what they would want. One possible situation where an advanced directive may be challenged on the basis of ethical or legal reason is if the patient requests the end of any life-sustaining treatment. Their medical professional may not be able to comply with this request for various reasons, and patients would not receive care they do not want. This type of request would probably be brought to the facilities ethics committee or legal team to ensure they can comply with the request without incurring any liability. Another situation could be as in the case of Kerrie Wooltorton, who lived in the U.K. She is “believed to be the first person to have used a living will to kill herself” (Gabbatt, 2009). In 2007 (September 19), she died from ethylene glycol toxicity (she had swallowed 350 mL of antifreeze). Shortly before ingesting the chemical, she wrote a living will (dated September 14 – just five (5) days prior) in which she stated that with the exception of treatments to make her comfortable, she did not want any medical intervention to save her life. She basically poisoned herself and requested that the hospital do noting to save her life. Though they followed her letter in the U.K., if a case like this were to occur in the U.S. there would be ethical and legal challenges. Sources: Gabbatt, A. (2009). Doctors Acted Legally in 'Living Will' Suicide Case. Retrieved from