SOCIAL ANALYSIS
Disabilities and illnesses place a great burden on the social structure of the society especially on the family unit. Patient’s families may live under tremendous pressure of not knowing what the patient prefers once they stopped communicating. Family members need direction and guidance in taking care of their loved ones and they best ay to do it is through building confidence. Advance directives provide that level of confidence needed to carry out that complex role. Nurses can take part in discussing with the patient the possibility of writing a directive early on before the onset of communication and mental barriers. Song 2004 as cited by Durbin 2010 mentioned that “Patients and healthcare providers believe that end-of-life …show more content…
Sometimes the patient communicates with the substitute decision maker. Limits to how much the SDM can decide on behalf of the patient are confusing. (Woyktwik, 2010 )Nurses might face situations where there is a clear conflict and clashing family values on the decision that was taken by the patient when he/she were in their right state of mind. Another point is that if a patient has an advance care directive or a living will to not be hospitalized and remain at home care, a barrier to that is that the family might not have the adequate resources to meet the demands of home care and ensure that the patient is comfortable when they are incapacitated. Patients can also have change in their preference and sometimes change their minds when it comes to contents of the advanced directive. At one point they may not agree to have artificial nutrition but at another point they may agree. (Woyktwik, 2010) This necessitates communicating with the patients from time to time to assess their wishes and if any change of preference might have occurred. An additional barrier to address is that many patients and members of the society are not educated about their rights to have an advanced directive written down. Physicians and other healthcare professionals are reluctant to discuss advanced directives with their patients because they fear the topic could make the patient uncomfortable, or they are not knowledgeable enough about the process to guide their patients. (Eggertson,
Disabilities and illnesses place a great burden on the social structure of the society especially on the family unit. Patient’s families may live under tremendous pressure of not knowing what the patient prefers once they stopped communicating. Family members need direction and guidance in taking care of their loved ones and they best ay to do it is through building confidence. Advance directives provide that level of confidence needed to carry out that complex role. Nurses can take part in discussing with the patient the possibility of writing a directive early on before the onset of communication and mental barriers. Song 2004 as cited by Durbin 2010 mentioned that “Patients and healthcare providers believe that end-of-life …show more content…
Sometimes the patient communicates with the substitute decision maker. Limits to how much the SDM can decide on behalf of the patient are confusing. (Woyktwik, 2010 )Nurses might face situations where there is a clear conflict and clashing family values on the decision that was taken by the patient when he/she were in their right state of mind. Another point is that if a patient has an advance care directive or a living will to not be hospitalized and remain at home care, a barrier to that is that the family might not have the adequate resources to meet the demands of home care and ensure that the patient is comfortable when they are incapacitated. Patients can also have change in their preference and sometimes change their minds when it comes to contents of the advanced directive. At one point they may not agree to have artificial nutrition but at another point they may agree. (Woyktwik, 2010) This necessitates communicating with the patients from time to time to assess their wishes and if any change of preference might have occurred. An additional barrier to address is that many patients and members of the society are not educated about their rights to have an advanced directive written down. Physicians and other healthcare professionals are reluctant to discuss advanced directives with their patients because they fear the topic could make the patient uncomfortable, or they are not knowledgeable enough about the process to guide their patients. (Eggertson,