What happens when you don't have a health care champion?

What happens when you don't have a health care "champion" who can represent your wishes if you can't speak for yourself? Registered nurse Alisha Childs tells you what she's seen and why it's vital to get your health care choices down on paper. You'll find all the resources you'll need at Novant Health's Choices and Champions program. Click here for a link, and to read about what one hospital administrator learned from his grandmother's death.

Transcript:
Roland 0:08

Anger, denial and loss of control. These are just some of the emotions that can erupt when a family member friend or partner has received a devastating medical diagnosis. And it can get a lot worse when the patient has an appointed a champion who can speak for them and make decisions on their behalf. They can't do it themselves. And if the family is split, look out. I'm Roland Wilkerson, nobody health healthy headlines. And today we're talking with registered nurse, Alicia child's about the importance of having a healthcare champion, and getting your health care choices down on paper. Alicia has seen a lot over the years, and will help us understand why we need to make our wishes known. At the end, we'll come back and tell you about a free site where you can learn how to start the conversation and get all the paperwork up. You'll also find stories on this topic and hundreds of other healthcare topics and no bond health healthy headlines. Thanks for listening.

What's it like? When families are divided over? family members care, and there's nothing on the record as to what the patient wants...

Alicia 1:25

it can be very chaotic, because as you know, anything can happen, at least someone you're not too young to get sick, you can have the stroke, you can, you know, have an accident in a boat, or you can accidentally, you know, almost drown. I mean, anything can happen, people overdose all the time, you don't expect someone in your 30s or, you know, early 40s 50s to, you know, become chronically ill. But I'm also the manager for the inpatient Harris hospice unit. So they see that a lot, the different family dynamics, someone may have, you know, 6%, having kids, and everyone wants to have their opinion of how the care should go, you may have kids and families who haven't seen their loved one for you know, 10 years, but they feel that they have the right to come and make decisions. That can be very, very chaotic, it can be stressful for the, you know, the patient, if a patient is still, you know, coherent, it's stressful for the team members, as well as the family. So you can't even focus on your last moments with your loved one, your focus is now on the stress of control. A lot of times, that's really what it is, is control.

Roland 2:33

So talk about that a little bit. What do you mean,

Alicia 2:38

for example, there was a patient who had a stroke, unexpected stroke, and he had a girlfriend, you know, of, you know, X amount of years, plus he had his children who may or may not have been involved in his care. So there could have been some family dynamics prior to the patient, you know, come in, of course, and the girl often thought that she should make the most rational decisions for her, her long term, you know, significant other, and here you have the kids. So is it gets very hairy. So our hospice team is really good about getting our liaisons involve our social workers or physicians and having family meetings and saying, Hey, there isn't a designated power of attorney, but we have to come to a conclusion, we have to come to a conclusion that's whether whether or not your point one person or whether or not they come to a decision about that person's health, you know, collectively as a whole?

Roland 3:35

And what's in a, can you think of a case where of where a patient had all the all the paperwork and all the decisions in order? What was that, like?

Alicia 3:48

You can I mean, you can totally tell the difference, just by walking into, you know, someone's from most of the time that that family as well as that patient, they're at peace at what, what their decision is. And I always have examples, for example, we had a, you know, early 40s, male, you know, young daughter, you know, fairly newly married, but he was diagnosed maybe a month prior to him, coming to us, but, you know, having that conversation with the physicians and, you know, accepting what his diagnosis and his prognosis was, number one, and then it all depends on their, you know, their faith and religious beliefs, and where they are in that process. And then when the whole family's on the same page is a totally different, a totally different environment. And it makes it less stressful for that patient, because I mean, they're still there, you may not think they're listening, but they're still there in as well, for the kids. For the wife, for the moms, everybody involved is a much, it's a much much different kind of how

Roland 4:57

so how is it different? What is what's it? You touched on this? What's it like in a patient's room? When, when I health care, power of attorney and directive and, and everything is in place? What's that, like, compared to

Unknown Speaker 5:16

compared to when families are split, is

Alicia 5:18

peaceful? Not and I'm not just saying that for the team, but for the patient is peaceful, and you have that time to reflect with the family about their loved one. You know, you can, for example, we have, you know, activities that we do with, say, if you have a young child or grandchild, we do handprints but the family, so they're more likely to be at a place where they can create those memories versus a family that may be in complete denial, and they're still fighting for, you know, you have half of the family fighting to keep, you know, your loved one here, you have the other half, you know, you know, accepting the fact that there ready to move on, and all situations aren't really, you know, life and death, I'm just speaking on behalf of oncology and hospice, a lot of times someone may find themselves in a chronic, chronically ill situation, but not necessarily the point of death.

Unknown Speaker 6:17

In so you touched on something

Roland 6:21

really interesting for the patient, what, what's it like for them, when maybe they're kind of coming in and out of consciousness, and there's a lot of stress in the family about what to do, and they can't end the patient isn't in a mental state to make their own decision? What, what's that like for them? Do you think? Of course

Alicia 6:44

agitation? I mean, again, people think that just because their loved one is unconscious, that they're they're not. They're not there. But they can absolutely, in many cases, probably the ICU or intermediate units, a lot of patients that may come out of their, you know, critically ill state may even tell their loved ones. Hey, I recall when you guys were talking about, you know, you know, ABC, whatever, whatever. So I'm sure for those ...