Behavioral Medicine: A Guide for Clinical Practice, 5e >Palliative Care, Hospice, &Care of the Dying

Mitchell D. Feldman, John F. Christensen, Jason M. Satterfield, Ryan Laponis+

Table 42-1.End-of-life issues to be discussed with patients.

Life support

•Do you have an advance directive (a living will or health care proxy)?
•Do you know what CPR is? It may not work very well for people in your condition, and it is very painful. Should you choose to forego CPR, we can focus our treatments on anything that has a good chance of
helping you without harming you.
•In the event an illness led to your being unable to eat or drink on a permanent basis, would you want to be fed with feeding tubes?
•Do you want your medical care primarily geared to prolonging your life, or is improving or maintaining your quality of life more important?

Personal beliefs

•What life experiences have you had around death and dying?
•How have these experiences affected your own attitudes about death?
•What are your worst fears about dying? What are your biggest hopes?
•What would be a “good death” for you?
•What do you believe happens to you when you die?
•If you were to die sooner rather than later, what would be left undone?

Long-term care and support systems

•If you become too ill to take care of yourself, who will take care of you?
•Who would you want to make health care decisions for you if you became unable to do so?
•If you were dying, would you prefer to be at home or in an institution such as a hospital or nursing home?
•Do you know what hospice care is? Would you want that kind of care if you were terminally ill?
•Who would you want to be present at the time of your dying and death?
•Is there anything you need to get done before you die?

Date of download: 12/27/22 from AccessMedicine: accessmedicine.mhmedical.com, Copyright © McGraw Hill. All rights reserved.