Introduction
People hardly think of dying until someone whom they are closely related or a good friend passes away. The instances that I have encountered of death of family members and or friends have made me wonder how I would be treated while I am not able to speak and make my own decisions. This is so especially when the death of the loved one involved a long-suffering through sickness or a tragedy such as a motor vehicle accident. In the case of motor vehicle accident, the person(s) hospitalized in coma for several days, months or even years either with broken bones or whole in being. The question I keep asking myself is how I would like my family to take care of me in this situation and make decisions on my behalf. If my relatives
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The “five wishes is the first living will that talks about personal, emotional and spiritual as well as the medical wishes that will allow for me to choose whom I want to make decision on my behalf (Aging with Dignity, 2018).
My experience
Filling the five wishes assignment was difficult for me due to my cultural background. The culture that I came from, we do not put our wishes in writing. Instead, we talk with family member on what our wishes are. This occurs mostly for the elderly people. In my tribal culture in Tanzania, it is a taboo for the young and middle age to talk about such matters with their families because it is considered unbecoming behavior. Having conversation with my family about the five wishes was more difficult. I shared with my family the story of my grandmother who had an unwritten
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However, after explaining to them the benefits of the document, they realized that it is important to have such document in place to help facilitate the decision making process in case of incapacitation. My family participated in filling the forms and so we helped one another to have the “five Wishes” in place (Aging with Dignity, 2018). After filling the forms, I found some relief and realized that, it took away many doubtful decisions that I would have to make for any family members in end-of life
Once I explained exactly what a living will is because some were unaware they were very comfortable with the idea of filling out a living will. The responses that I got all varied to different degrees. My brother stated that he did not yet have a living will but that they are very important to have and everyone should get one. He said that his wishes would be to pretty much “pull the plug in every circumstance”. He absolutely did not want to be put on life support, be artificially supplied with food, or get life sustaining drugs, machines, or other medical procedures. My mother had wishes the same as I would have which is to consider the circumstances and give me a month to evaluate if I have the possibility of making a full recovery. If there is no hope of having a full recovery then I want all life sustaining measures to be stopped because I don’t in any way want to be a burden on
Health IT provides the protection of patients’ privacy, confidentiality, and allocating resources in a fair way across programs, services, and patients. Health IT makes available information from the health record and from many authoritative sources that informs patients and clinicians to a point that they are collaborators in the quest to improve the health of the patient longitudinally. That is, from cradle to grave. Ethical practices in end of life care or palliative care is another area where health IT can provide information to clinicians and patience to address patient issues near the end of life. This would include the options of choosing facilities for independent living, or assisted living and/or nursing care facilities. Health IT can assist patients to reenter the work force and support a valuable aspect of providing a living for those disabled or with diseases that may have reduced or eliminated their ability to secure gainful employment. Health IT is effective in teaching clinicians about how to behave with certain patient populations (Fox, Crigger, Bottrell, & Bauck, n.d., p.
A living will is a type of advanced health care directive, which states an individual’s wishes for health care treatment when he/she is terminally ill. Living wills are often applied to end-of-life decision making when patients are no longer deemed competent to direct care for themselves. The form of living wills can vary widely. But, most address whether or not to use life-prolong medical treatment such as CPR, respirators, and artificial nutrition and hydration. These documents can also contain information about the importance of quality of life for patients and can name a healthcare proxy to make medical decisions in their place. Having a living will allows individuals to state their
Thanks in part to the scientific and technological advances of todays’ society, enhanced medicinal treatment options are helping people battle illnesses and diseases and live longer than ever before. Despite these advances, however, many people with life threatening illnesses have needs and concerns that are unidentified and therefore unmet at the end of life, notes Arnold, Artin, Griffith, Person and Graham (2006, p. 62). They further noted that when these needs and concerns remain unmet, due in part to the failure of providers to correctly evaluate these needs, as well as the patients’ reluctance to discuss them (p. 63, as originally noted by Heaven & Maguire, 1997), a patient’s quality of life may be adversely affected. According to Bosma et al. (2010, p. 84), “Many generalist social work skills regarding counseling, family systems, community resources, and psychosocial assessments are relevant to working with patients and families with terminal illness”, thereby placing social workers in the distinctive position of being able to support and assist clients with end of life decisions and care planning needs. In fact, they further noted that at some point, “most social work practitioners will encounter adults, children, and families who are facing progressive life limiting illness, dying, death, or bereavement” (p. 79).
...e terminally ill. This right would allow them to leave this earth with dignity, save their families from financial ruin, and relieve them of insufferable pain. To give competent, terminally-ill adults this necessary right is to give them the autonomy to close the book on a life well-lived.
Having a wish fulfilled is a desire everyone keeps, but granting one is a special characteristic of a chosen few. Such is the ideology of the Make a wish foundation. This simple, but powerful belief is what drives the Make-A-Wish foundation. For children who must face the uncertainty of a tomorrow, due to their rapidly deteriorating health, a wish is more than just a desire. It’s a hope. Hope is what carries us out of the darkest of slums, to keep going. To face a tomorrow. Make-A-Wish is committed to granting the wish of every eligible child. They do this believing that wishes can make sick children feel better, and sometimes, when they feel better, they get better. Since the spring of 1980, they have been granting the wishes of children diagnosed with a life-threatening medical conditions. The make a wish foundation has the ability to not only unite a society as whole and further the awareness of life threatening illnesses, but also gives hope to individuals and a community as a whole.
To “live as fully and comfortably as possible” is a key phrase in the care and treatment of a patient under hospice care. Hospice care focuses on the comfort and quality of life for a person with a terminal illness. The focus is not on a cure. A hospice care provider wants to help the patient be as pain free and comfortable as they can be, so that they can live the rest of their life as fully as possible. Unfortunately, more often than not, patients with terminal illnesses are viewed to be too frail to participate in occupations (Russell, M., & Bauh-Lampe, A., 20016). It is also true that people facing the end of their life feel helpless or depressed, lose their ability to participate in a lot of the daily activities they once enjoyed, and experience a loss of dignity. (Badger, S., Macleod, R., & Honey, A. 2016). However, with hospice care, many patients are able to find some degree of comfort, safety and control over their lives during their final days.
Finally the writer hasty generalizes the editorial in the second to last paragraph. “What people mainly want is some assurance of personal control and dignity, freedom from pain and faith that their last wishes will be honored” (Death, Dignity).
Dealing with someone dying is not something that is going to be fun or enjoyable. Death comes to everyone, none of us can duck and dodge it. Death of natural causes is not something that can be controlled by anyone, but it is important for people to be with those that are dying. When someone you know is dying, whether they are friends or family it’s very important for them to feel loved and not alone. It is also important that the opinions and thoughts of the patient be taken into consideration because they are going through something that no one can say they relate to. In dealing with death, there are many emotions that are felt by the sick patient and their friends and family. In A Very Easy Death
For many years our society and the media has placed an image of death in our heads, of a painful experience, one that is feared by everyone. Although death can be emotionally draining, also can be an uplifting experience. Providing comfort and love and the assurance that life will continue, is truly the biggest gift. Hospices are designated to provide sensitive support for people in the final phase of terminal illness. ). The typical hospice patient has a life expectancy of six months or less. Hospice care works to help the patient and family members to carry on an alter, pain-free life to manage other symptoms so that their last days may be spent with dignity and quality at home or in a home-like setting (http:/www.cmcric.org/homecare.html, 2000)
The end-of-life nurse’s primary objective is to provide comfort and compassion to patients and their families during an extremely difficult time. They must satisfy all “physical, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual needs” of the patient and their family. (Wu & Volker, 2012) The nurse involves their patient in care planning, as well as educating them about the options available. They must follow the wishes of the patient and their family, as provided in the patient’s advance directive if there is one available. It is i...
We can see that the hospice concept is a bio-psychosocial approach to the dying process, concerned with biological, psychological, and social health. Because of its proponents, Hospice is considered a more humane and sensible approach to terminal illness, combining care, comfort, and support of family and friends as the individual faces death. Their concern for dignity and fo...
While I do not have a terminal illness, I have a chronic illness and with all illnesses come complications. Many of these complications are solved through quick emergency room visits or an adjustment to my medications, but I am aware that it could be much worse. It is very important that I write up a living will so that if there was a major complication with my illness and I was unable to make medical decisions for myself in the moment, my wishes would still be known and carried through. I am very adamant that I do not stay on life support machines if there was not a chance that I survive without them. I also am very adamant that my family should not have to make the decision whether or not I stay on life support. I’ve seen too many people I know go through having to make that decision for their loved ones to wish that on mine. So instead, I will take that burden off of them and decide now while I still am able to express my
The subject of death and dying is a common occurrence in the health care field. There are many factors involved in the care of a dying patient and various phases the patient, loved ones and even the healthcare professional may go through. There are many controversies in health care related to death, however much of it roots from peoples’ attitudes towards it. Everyone handles death differently; each person has a right to their own opinions and coping mechanisms. Health care professionals are very important during death related situations; as they are a great source of support for a patient and their loved ones. It is essential that health care professionals give ethical, legal and honest care to their patients, regardless of the situation.
We as health care professionals need to work side by side with the families to provide the best care and decisions that are right by our patients. We have to be mindful of the cause and effect our course of treatment depicts for our patients. No individual wants to live in pain or misery, we all want to be healthy and happy and are willing to go great lengths to achieve this goal. Death is the final stage of life, but as we live and get older we start to prepare for death as to not fear death but accept it. Health care professionals may benefit from the opportunity to acknowledge, normalize and integrate death and dying into the continuum of life, both for themselves as well as their patients. (Sinclair, 2011) With advancements in technology and medicine we are living longer and fuller lives, and given time quality of life will only continue to improve.