What Are Advance Directives - Essay Example

In an interview with a client, several factors were identified that were of importance to him; regarding ethical and practical issues. First, it was not clear about the role of the family or identified caregivers. A situation may arise where the family members may give false information to the health care professionals, especially if they are heirs to property or money in case the person dies. Also, other family members may forge an advance directive to suit their wants, mostly if they are beneficiaries of the patient’s property if he/she dies (Schwab, 2003). The client also wanted to know if it is mandatory to have an advance directive. Although it is not obligatory, someone needs to have an advance directive. Many people, however, do not know the purpose of this document.

A completed form of this kind would be helpful to health care providers if a form was completed by a said individual and later lost capacity and needed care in a health facility, in that the surrogate decision-maker would make medical choices on their behalf. By default, the decision maker is supposed to be the next of kin. However, several matters ought to be addressed to ensure the patient receives optimum care, according to some scholars (Berger, DeRenzo & Schwartz, 2008).