Advance Care Planning

Length: 3:00
Link to YouTube page: https://youtu.be/njMp7HA_IdI?si=Kkullr0muDL1HkIZ

Transcript

[0:00] Visual: Screen fades from black to purple and text on the screen “Advance Care Planning at El Rio Health”

[0:05] Visual: Screen fades to show Nancy with text on the screen “Nancy, RN Advance Care Planning”

[0:06] Nancy: Hello, my name is Nancy. I’m a nurse here at El Rio. My specialty is advance care planning. I go from clinic to clinic and I offer assistance for our patients to complete their advance directives. Basically what that means is it’s a power of attorney but it’s a healthcare power of attorney and a living will. The medical power of attorney and the living will are both medical and they’re something that you plan ahead for when you can’t speak for yourself. We’re all gonna reach a point where we’re in the hospital and we’re not conscious. Who’s gonna speak for us when we can’t speak for ourselves? What do you want them to do for you. It’s uh directions. It’s very simple um you can say I want everything done, pull you know, pull out all the stops. I want it all done. Or you can say I want everything done but I don’t want to be on a breathing machine, for example. Or you can say, you know I just want to be made comfortable. Every Friday morning through the month of April we’re having classes for um for this very purpose. We’re doing that at 10 o’clock every Friday and you can go to our website and register on the website.

[1:28] Visual: Text on screen “Register Here www.ElRio.org/AdvanceCarePlanning”

[1:29] Nancy: And you’ll be able to go to any of the um Zoom classes that are teaching at 10 o’clock on Friday. It’s a 30 minute class at most that answers all your questions and it seems to really help people. We understand that it’s planning for our future medical care. We don’t have to always think it’s gonna be the end of our life. One and done. It’s something that can be modified every week, every time you come to the doctor’s office, every year. When the time comes and you’re unconscious and you can’t speak for yourself, that’s when it goes into play. That’s when it goes into action. Um until then, it’s just a living document that you can just have date and change as much as you want. What I would like to do is normalize advance directives so that just like you go to renew your passport or your driver’s license. Not everybody who may use their advance directives will be at the end of life. We have seen people come out of uh intubation with code. We’ve seen come out of comas, but in the meanwhile while they’re in that state where they can’t speak for themselves, they’ve got it taken care of. They they know who will speak for them and they trust that person to say what needs to be said. To honor their wishes. The gift that you give to yourself but it’s a gift that you give to your family or friends because you’ve helped them uh navigate through a time that would be very difficult.

[2:59] Visual: Screen fades to black