In your project this week, you will explore advanced directives, torts and your role in healthcare while respecting patient’s rights. You will be evaluated on each project on the accuracy of your responses, the completeness of your responses, your ability to think critically about each situation and your overall writing ability. Your responses to the questions below should be constructed in complete sentences using proper grammar, spelling and punctuation. In addition to the grading standards found in the syllabus, projects will also be graded on accuracy and application of course materials. Each answer should be at least one paragraph in length, include supporting facts from the textbook, and an in-text citation.

Your project should be submitted to the Dropbox by the end of Unit 4.

Unit 4 Project Questions

1. What is the purpose of having an advance directive?

Having an advance directive allows a patient to tell the medical staff how they would like treatment, and future care to go. With an advance directive, the medical team will know what a patient’s wishes are if they ever become unable to express them on their own. By law, medical facilities must provide information on a patient’s right to make the decisions in their medical care.

2. There are four types of advanced directives listed in your text. Please list and describe three of them:

Living will: A living will is commonly notarized. A living will is common for when anything happens, and a person became unable to speak for themselves- there would be a living will describing the various types of care they would like to receive.

Do Not Resuscitate: (DNR) occurs when a patient has DNR listed on file in their medical chart. This means that the patient wishes to not be resuscitated if anything was to happen unexpectedly (i.e., cardiac arrest, heart failure).

Uniform Anatomical Gift Act: This occurs when someone was to pass away, and has organ donor, or something of the source, listed in a file. If a person is old enough to make the decision to be a organ donor, their organs would then be donated for transplant, or other purposed.

3. What is the purpose of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act?

The purpose of this act is to transplant organs to someone in need, or for training purposes- but only if the subject is of legal age to make the decision that they want to be a donor. Organs are only donated if they were in great working condition before the person passed away.

4. Does the patient in this case have a right to an advance directive? Why or why not?

Yes. Everyone has the right to an advance directive. Specifically, this patient does not believe in the treatment he would be receiving, and has wishes to not have treatment at all. Instead, this patient lists in a living will what he wishes for, and hands it to a medical staff to document in his medical record. It’s been said that living wills have to be abided by in most cases.

5. Does the patient in this case have a right to refuse treatment? Why or why not?

Yes because he is in a capacity where he is able to state what he wishes for, and by law, these wishes must be granted. If the patient was in a capacity where he couldn’t speak for himself