What should a person consider when choosing a medical power of attorney?
Suggestions to choose perfect medical power of attorney are (Lum, Sudore and Bekelman 2015):
- Location is one of the key factors to look for in choosing the medical power of attorney. In case of health emergency, the medical attorney should attend in minimal time and can spend for an extended time. Thus, distance between the both parties is important.
- The medical attorney should have the understanding of medical issue of the patient. Otherwise, he cannot able to take rational decisions based on the medical issue of the patient.
- Medical attorney should not posses his personal beliefs on the patient. Medical attorney should be people who will not posses any personal issue with the patient. Choose someone who will close to the patient and be comfortable with him/her.
- Medical attorney should be someone who can give time or willing to allot time to serve the patient. Thus, choose someone who has enough time to allot for the patient and can be available at any time.
Why do you think that nursing facilities worry about discontinuing artificial nutrition and hydration on persons at the end of life?
Discontinuing artificial nutrition and hydration will have negative impact on the nursing facilities. It is due to the reasons that, in some cases, people in the critical condition are not in the position of taking food and medicines by their own. At that time, artificial nutrition and hydration is required, maybe at the cost of their inconvenience (Rapoport et al., 2013). However, discontinuing this facility will leave no option for the nurses to provide nutrition to the patients.
References
Lum, H.D., Sudore, R.L. and Bekelman, D.B., 2015. Advance care planning in the elderly. Medical Clinics of North America, 99(2), pp.391-403.
Rapoport, A., Shaheed, J., Newman, C., Rugg, M. and Steele, R., 2013. Parental perceptions of forgoing artificial nutrition and hydration during end-of-life care. Pediatrics, pp.peds-2012.
