What is end of life care?
End-of-Life Care, also known as palliative care, aims to provide care and comfort to individuals nearing the end of their lives.
While this is an uncomfortable topic to discuss, it is vital to providing individuals with reassurance, ease anxieties, and help them prepare to make medical decisions about what they want for support and care.
ways to provide care and comfort at the end of life
People who are nearing the end of their life typically need care in four areas.
- Physical Comfort
- Mental and Emotional Needs
- Spiritual Needs
- Practical Tasks
Physical Comfort
- This can include relieving pain, easing their breathing difficulties, and ensuring the person isn’t too hot or cold.
Mental and Emotional Needs
- Someone who is alert near the end of life might feel depressed, anxious, or may experience mental confusion.
- It is important that you provide physical contact, set a comforting mood, and most importantly be present. Talk or read to them, even if they can’t talk back. If they can, listen attentively to them.
Spiritual Needs
- A person may talk about finding meaning in one’s life, or want to end disagreements with others, or make peace with life’s circumstances.
- The person may want to talk with someone from their religious community, listen to religious music, or pray.
Practical Tasks
- Many practical jobs will need to be done at the end of an individual's life such as taking care of the affairs at home, helping the caregivers, and helping family and friends with legal documents.
- Communicating with the person and their team is important to give them the assurance they need.
ADVANCE CARE DIRECTIVES
These are legal documents that outline a person's wishes for medical treatment should they become unable to make decisions for themselves due to illness or injury. These documents are very important as they allow individuals to express their preferences for medical care, including life-sustaining treatments, and to designate a healthcare agent to make decisions on their behalf when they are incapacitated.
- Power of Attorney (POA)
- Living Will
- Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST)
Power of Attorney (POA)
Power of Attorney or POA is a legal document giving one person (the agent), the power to act for another person (the principal).
It is used in the event of a permanent illness or disability where the person is unable to sign necessary documents or unable to understand what they are signing.
Different Kinds of POAs:
- Medical POA: Also known as a healthcare POA, allows the agent to make healthcare decisions on the principal’s behalf. This could include decisions such as medical treatments, medication, surgery, and end-of-life care.
- Durable POA: Gives the agent authority to act on the principal's behalf and still continues after you have become incapacitated.
- Financial POA: Gives the agent authority to act on the principal’s behalf on decisions regarding money and property. This includes paying bills and family’s expenses, making bank deposits and withdrawals, collecting and managing retirement benefits, selling or renting real estate and filing taxes.
POA Form and conditions
Navigate to this form POA Form to learn more about the process of obtaining a POA as well as other conditions in order to complete this form.
The POA will take effect:
- immediately after the principal and agent sign the agreement
- upon meeting the predetermined criteria outlined in the agreement
The POA ends if:
- the principal revokes the agreement
- the principal dies
- the court invalidates the agreement
- the agent can no longer carry out the responsibilities outlined in the agreement
Living will
A living will is a written, legal paper that includes the details about the medical treatment a person would and would not want to be used to keep them alive.
It is used when a person becomes incapacitated or unable to decide for themselves.
- The living will should list as many possible end-of-life care decisions such as CPR, pacemakers, and implantable cardioverter defibrillators, ventilators, tube feeding, dialysis, antibiotics, comfort care, and organ donations.
- Talk to a doctor about planning your living will and complete the living will form. It will have to be witnessed by two adults and is recommended to be notarized. The person should keep the living will and give copies to their healthcare providers.
Physician orders for life sustaining treatments (POLST)
A POLST is a medical order completed by a healthcare practitioner such as a physician, licensed resident, advanced practice nurse, or physician assistant which communicates an individual's wishes for medical treatment in their current state of health.
The form will ask questions on:
- If cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) should be attempted or not
- What kind of invasive treatment to use such as intubation, mechanical ventilation, cardioversion, or non-invasive treatments such as CPAP and BiPAP
- Medically administered nutrition and hydration
navigating The end of life from a christian perspective
As Christians, we believe that there is no longer fear in death! All consquences, pain, and suffering has been conquered by our Lord Jesus Christ. On our behalf, He suffered the judgment and wrath that we deserved, and through His resurrection He dismantled the hopeless nature of sin and death.
Now as believers, we can proclaim an eternal hope of victory over death.
1 Corinthians 15:55-57:
"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? ... But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."