With National Healthcare Decisions Day coming up next week, our OSF Supportive Care team thought it would be a good time to share a view from both sides of the advance care planning process: from a facilitator, the staff who help patients and families walk through the advance care planning steps, and from a couple who recently went through the process themselves.
Today’s post features one of our OSF Care Decisions facilitators, Nancy Tuftie, who works at our hospital in Ottawa, Illinois, OSF Saint Elizabeth Medical Center.
Tell us about yourself and your background… what is your role at OSF?
I was born and raised in Ottawa, Illinois. After college, I spent a few years traveling around, eventually settling back in the Ottawa area, where I worked for two years in a sheltered workshop for developmentally disabled adults. That’s when I started my career at OSF Saint Elizabeth Medical Center as the Director of Social Services.
The challenges and opportunities are on-going here. I helped develop our hospice program and I work with staff and outside organizations for discharge planning as well. I am a liaison with area resources in assisting patients/families develop and maintain independence as well as crisis intervention. For more than 20 years, I have facilitated a grief support group for the community and have managed the Employee Assistance Program at the hospital. I am truly passionate with regards to assisting any adult complete their advance care plans.
Why Should Patients & Families Consider Advance Care Planning?
Life on Earth is short, even if we are blessed to live to a mature age. I believe it is so important to talk with family and/or friends and your doctor about the medical care at the end of your life. Accidents and serious illnesses happen. Advance care planning (ACP) helps every adult to think about their health care needs, in advance.
Yes, it is hard to think about but each of us needs to voice our future health care wishes, including our beliefs and things we would want done or not done.
What’s the importance of advance care planning to doctors and medical staff?
For your family, for your doctor, if an accident occurs and this conversation with those close to you has happened, it allows family to be sure the medical team is aware and follows your wishes.
I truly believe that families do not have to feel guilty then as they are ensuring your wishes are followed, rather than having to make these medical decisions during a crisis. Once ACP has been done, hospitals have a copy on file, your doctor gets a copy and your family should not just receive, but have long discussions about them – so they clearly understand your health care wishes for end of life. The medical team is legally mandated to follow your wishes.
Can you provide an example of advance care planning in action?
An elderly man was hospitalized for the first time since gallbladder surgery in the late 1970’s, with back pain. We discussed benefits and he stated “I should have done this, but I don’t want to do it today, I’m discharged and meeting my friend for lunch.” He told me his family was all gone on to Heaven, with the exception of an adult granddaughter. I called him the next day to schedule an appointment. He was going for coffee, but said if I could meet him in the chapel, he would still make his coffee date.
This man completed the Health Care Power of Attorney, as well as the discussion. On his discussion record, he wrote specific memorial service wishes, which I encouraged him to share with his granddaughter. A few months later, he developed a chronic disease that he understood would get worse over time. Again, he talked with his granddaughter, and died a few days later. This man’s goal was to be sure his granddaughter did not have to feel guilty or struggle to decide his health care needs. She also very much appreciated knowing his health care wishes.
What’s the most common thing you hear from patients about advance care planning?
The most common responses I receive from patients are, “I’m healthy,” “I’m too young,” or “My family will know what I want.” Any person 18 or older is not too young or too healthy!
Remember, the reason to complete an advance care plan is twofold: to document your individual wishes for end of life medical care, and to alleviate a future burden on family. ACP is for everyone. If you are not able to make your own health care decisions one day, your agent will be able to make decisions following your previously stated wishes.
In Closing…
Please consider making an appointment to complete your ACP, to ensure if you lose the ability to make medical decisions, your loved ones will greatly be helped by this document in making decisions, you yourself would have made.
Advance care planning is so much more than completing a Health Care Power of Attorney. OSF Supportive Care provides a discussion record that is completed along with POAHC that really encourages family discussion and understanding so that your wishes are documented, for your family and caregiver teams to remember.
Last Updated: January 13, 2022