Checklist improves advance care planning?

“I was very dubious,” said Susan D. Block, MD, chair of the Dept. of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

“It seemed mechanical and reductionistic and cold to me, but I’ve warmed up to it. … I’m intrigued, in my mind, by this paradox — that something as routinized as a checklist could help with a conversation so deep and profound and complicated. It has some interesting potential, and we’re going to find out whether it works.”

Links:  

• Article: Checklist approach to be tested in end-of-life care planning, Kevin B. O'Reilly, American Medical News, June 13, 2012
• End of Life Discussion - Check, Practical Bioethics, June 11, 2011
• Podcast: Adding an Agent to "The Talk," Helen Emmott and Sandy Silva, March 22, 2012

Document and Talk about Your Medical Wishes

An estimated 25% to 30% of Americans have filled out living wills, documents that spell out wishes for medical treatment. But ethicists say the typically simplistic documents aren't the solution many hoped they would be.

Life-prolonging medical technology has far outstripped doctors' ability to predict outcomes. The hardest choices center on when quality of life will be so diminished that death is preferable.

Links: 

A New Look at Living Wills, Laura Johannes, Wall Street Journal, June 8, 2012

Advance Directives and the Center for Practical Bioethics, You Tube 

Caring Conversations

Have you had "The Talk?"

April 16th is National Healthcare Decisions Day, a day to identify someone to speak for you when you can no longer speak for yourself.

Take this opportunity to have “The Talk” using the updated version of Caring Conversations from the Center for Practical Bioethics. It's a booklet that helps guide families in making practical preparations for serious illness or the end of life.

For a free copy of the new Caring Conversations click here.