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Advance Care Planning: Health Care Agent

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2023

By
Patrycja Zurzycka
Edited by
Marta Szabat  and
Jan Piasecki
Marta Szabat
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University, Krakow
Jan Piasecki
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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Summary

Abstract

Advance care planning enables patients to express pro futuro their autonomy and to make decisions about their therapeutic and care processes. It is the basis for the provision of holistic and individualized care. A process of dialogue between the patient and their loved ones, and health care professionals and others involved in their care, with the aim of establishing achievable goals of care consistent with the patient’s preferences. One form of advance care planning is the appointment of a health care agent to make decisions on behalf of the incompetent patient based on the patient’s previously expressed wishes and preferences. Therefore, it is important to appoint people close to patients who are familiar with their preferences, beliefs, and values to serve as their agent. The scope of the health care agent includes making decisions related to the therapeutic process and care to the extent to which the patient would be entitled and his health condition would allow the current expression of consent.

The institution of health care agent still does not function in the Polish legal system or the healthcare system. This situation has not been changed by Recommendation No. 11 of the Council of Europe of 2009, nor by the initiatives of the medical and legal community to create guidelines and regulate the legal basis for health care agents.

Keywords: ACP, care, patients, autonomy, health care, healthcare system

Introduction

Obtaining the patient’s consent for the performance of services proposed to him is the basis of modern medical practice. The patients’ will constitute the limit of medical intervention admissibility and their autonomy prevails over objective assessment of legitimacy of the actions taken. The progress of medicine has led to the emergence of new therapeutic possibilities, which often raise questions about the limits of the medical staff’s duty to respect the patient’s wishes and provide the best care.

As the world’s demographics change (aging populations) and medical science advances, caring for adult patients with chronic illnesses who lack decision-making capacity will increasingly become an integral part of medical practice (McMahan et al. 2013; Montanari 2020; Potter and Lee 2020; Sussman et al. 2017).

Type
Chapter
Information
Approaches to Death and Dying
Bioethical and Cultural Perspectives
 , pp. 49 - 64
Publisher: Jagiellonian University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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