Advance directives in dialysis patients

Advance directives for insulin-using diabetic patients.

Do Advance Directives Direct?

Resolution of long-standing debates about the role and impact of advance directives - living wills and powers of attorney for health care - has been hampered by a dearth of appropriate data, in particular data that compare the process and outcomes of end-of-life decision making on behalf of patients with and without advance directives. Drawing on a large ethnographic study of patients in two in...

Advance directives in community patients with heart failure.

BACKGROUND Although it is recommended that all patients with heart failure (HF) have advance directives (AD) in place before the end of life is imminent, the use of AD in HF has not been well studied. METHODS AND RESULTS We enrolled consecutive Olmsted County residents presenting with HF from October 2007 through October 2011 into a longitudinal study. Information from AD completed before enr...

Advance directives among patients in a house call program.

BACKGROUND Advance medical directives (the living will and the durable power of attorney) provide a means for competent persons to influence treatment decisions in the event of serious illness and loss of competence. Advance directives among elderly homebound patients. METHODS In a house call program for 120 elderly patients, a standardized telephone interview was conducted with 116 patients ...

Advance directives and older people: ethical challenges in the promotion of advance directives in New Zealand.

In New Zealand an advance directive can be either an oral statement or a written document. Such directives give individuals the opportunity to make choices about future medical treatment in the event they are cognitively impaired or otherwise unable to make their preferences known. All consumers of health care have the right to make an advance directive in accordance with the common law. When w...