Advance Health Care Directive and Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment

FIELD ACTIVITY PAPER
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Part I
California Advance Health Care Directive form is located on the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) website. Like other directives in California, the advance health care directive was established by the Health Care Decisions Act. A major feature of the California Advance Health Care Directive is that patients can direct their primary physician not to prolong their lives in the event they lose the ability to make decisions for themselves. This feature is consistent with the California End of Life Option Act's objective, which permits mentally capable Californians who suffer from terminal illnesses to demand medication that hastens their inevitable death.
Completing the CA advanced directive is easy because apart from part 5, which is mandatory, an individual may complete any of the first four parts. The majority of the answers required involve ticking boxes and providing details of agents, primary care physicians, and witnesses. However, filling part 2 (instructions for health care) of the advanced directive is challenging. Some medical experts argue that agreeing not to prolong life protects loved ones from the burden of making healthcare decisions related to the patient (Solomon et al., 2017). I agree with this opinion since it enables me to make my healthcare preferences clear. However, as a healthcare provider, I think that patients who agree not to prolong life imply that medical professionals have failed in their work.
Part II
POLST is referred to as Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment. The form is used to translate the wishes of the patients into actionable medical instructions. The form also gives direction for emergency care in any healthcare setting. A POLST is a physician's plan that uses a patient's preferences and a physician's judgment of the patient's medical condition to outline end-of-life care. The primary objective of a POLST is to enable a patient and his/her physician to establish default healthcare orders that can be passed to other healthcare professionals (Carley et al., 2014). In hospitals, APRN is examples of healthcare professionals who can use the POLST Paradigm. They can also disseminate the information on the POLST form and educate people everywhere. A POLST form is usually completed by an individual's physician or any person with adequate knowledge related to POLST and works with the physician. After completing the POLST form, it can only become a legal document if it signifies both the patient and his/her physician. In cases where a patient cannot make th...