The 5 questions you need to ask when the Intensive Care team is talking about "Futility of treatment"
Published: Tue, 11/26/13
instantly improve the lives of Families of critically ill Patients
in Intensive Care, so that you can have real power, real control
and so that you can influencedecision making, even if you're
not a doctor or a nurse in Intensive Care!
In last week's blog I showed you "The 5 reasons why you
need to stop being intimidated by the Intensive Care team, if your
loved one is critically ill in Intensive Care" and if you
haven't read, watched or listened to the update, you can check
it out here. http://intensivecarehotline.com/?p=3921
In this week's blog I want to talk about "The 5 questions
you need to ask when the Intensive Care team is talking about
"Futility of treatment", "Withdrawal of life
support" or about
"Withdrawal of treatment"!
No other situation or topic in Intensive Care is causing more
emotion, discomfort, angst, controversy and irritation than end of
life situations and/or the situations and discussions that lead up
to it- And rightly so, because life is extremely precious. More
importantly, you need to be highly sensitised and alert whenever
the Intensive Care is talking about "Futility of
treatment",
"Withdrawal of life support" or about "Withdrawal of
treatment",
especially when it relates to your critically ill loved one's
treatment!
After more than 15 years Intensive Care nursing experience in three
different countries, I have been involved in many end of life
situations and I have seen many situations where the Intensive Care
team has positioned critically ill Patients' prognosis,
diagnosis and their ongoing treatment as "futile".
Futility of treatment is also defined as "justification of a
decision not to pursue certain and ongoing medical treatment that
may be requested or demanded by Patients or their surrogates".
"Withdrawal of life support" and "Withdrawal of
treatment" are in the same category than "Futility of
treatment" and the reality in Intensive Care is that the
difference between the three statements is negligible and grey, as
they all have the same end goal in mind, which is basically not to
extend treatment and let a Patient approach their end of life and
die. And this may well be in the best interest of a critically ill
Patient and a Family.
However, in many cases "Futility of treatment",
"Withdrawal of life support" and/or "Withdrawal of
treatment" are strong statements to make by the Intensive Care
team and you need to know and understand why the Intensive Care
team positions your critically ill loved one's prognosis and
diagnosis that way and how this positioning may impact on the
course of your, your Family's and most importantly your
critically ill loved one's trajectory of their stay in
Intensive Care.
You need to know where you stand, irrespective of the Intensive
Care team's positioning!
You also need to have your and your Family's positioning worked
out when entering those discussions, because otherwise the
Intensive Care team will make decisions for you and for your
critically ill loved one if you come unprepared and the Intensive
Care team will walk all over you and make decisions that suits the
Intensive Care Unit's needs and not your and your critically
ill loved one's needs.
Your positioning during those discussions is so important that I
can't stress enough that the Intensive Care team is prepared to
"pull the plug" on your critically ill loved one, if you
don't have your "act together" so to speak. After
all, you, your Family and your critically ill loved one are in a
unique and often "once in a lifetime situation" that is
defining the rest of your life. Therefore you want to have as much
information, support and education available that gets you through
this difficult situation.
Putting your emotions aside for a moment is crucial!
Whenever you're faced with a challenge like end of life in
Intensive Care there are a multitude of questions you need to ask
and it's important that you approach this topic rationally and
that you put your emotions aside for a moment.
Most importantly, after having been involved in many end- of life
situations in Intensive Care, I have found that you need to ask 5
distinct questions regarding the positioning of the Intensive Care
team, as it relates to "Futility of treatment",
"Withdrawal of life support" and/or "Withdrawal of
treatment" in your critically ill loved one's situation.
Because as it relates to other areas in life as well, in order to
find the right answers you need to ask the right questions!
1. Does your critically ill loved one's treatment cost
too much time, money and resources that the Intensive Care team
doesn't want to invest?
CONTINUE READING by clicking on the link and get all 5 questions
you need to ask http://intensivecarehotline.com/?p=4115