Rasmussen College Living Will Discussion

Competency

Analyze ethical and legal dilemmas that healthcare workers may encounter in the medical field.

Instructions

You have recently been promoted to Health Services Manager at ThreeMountains Regional Hospital, a small hospital located in a mid-size cityin the Midwest. Three Mountains is a general medical and surgicalfacility with 400 beds. Last year there were approximately 62,000emergency visits and 15,000 admissions. More than 6,000 outpatient and10,000 inpatient surgeries were performed.

An important aspect of the provider/patient relationship pertains toopen communication and trust. Patients want to know that their doctorsand the support staff associated with their care understand their wishesand will abide by them. Ideally, these conversations happen well beforean emergency or procedure takes place; however, often times thisinformation is missing from a patient’s file. As part of ThreeMountains’ initiative to build trust with their patients, an increasedemphasis has been placed on obtaining living wills from the patient aspart of the intake process to ensure that the healthcare team haswritten directives of the patient’s wishes in case of incapacitation.You will be creating a living will for a patient and provide educationalinformation as to why the patient should fill it out during theadmission process before a procedure.

1. Introduction: Explain the definition of a livingwill and its key components. This section will provide an educationaloverview of the document for the patient.
2. Living Will Template: Create a living will thatcan serve as a template to the patients. This should cover the basictreatment issues such as resuscitation, feeding tubes, ventilation,organ and tissue donations, etc. Provide instructions in the templatethat can be easily altered, depending on each patient’s wishes.
3. Summary: In this section, you will discuss theimportance of this document and encourage patients to complete it.Address how this document ensures that a patient’s wishes are known andfollowed by the healthcare team.