 Hi guys, I wanted to do a quick little video here for you all on a topic that I don't think I've touched on in Sorry, my dog's right here. If you hear like loud breathing scratching whatever I want to do a quick video on advanced directives and Why it's important to me why it's important to our patients How do we talk to patients about these things what I've seen in my career as an ICU nurse when it comes to advanced directives? I don't think I've made a video on this and it's like it's seriously so so important One of the things that like literally the first things I ask my ICU patients when they come to the ICU if they are available to answer questions is Who makes decisions for you if you can't and then I also will ask them like you know Do you have any advanced directives about what you would want in an emergency situation? You know, would you want a breathing tube? Would you be okay with blood products? Would you be okay with a feeding tube now? Obviously, you have to make sure it's an appropriate time if your patient's like up getting up to you and they're struggling breathing and What not you've got to be you know classy about how you ask these questions But for sure one of the very first questions I asked my patients is Who makes decisions for you and if your heart stops beating are you okay with us doing CPR now? These are also conversations that the doctor needs to have with the patient Especially depending on the location and where you are at but in the state of Arizona a physician has to write that order and have that Conversation I should say a higher-level provider like nurse practitioners and whatnot can but as the nurse I at least like to know so that way if the patient is a full code in the chart and they just told me no I don't want CPR. No, don't put a breathing tube in me I don't want any artificial like means of life Then I can grab the physician and be like hey We need to get this set in stone I Cannot tell you how many people do not have advanced rectives like whatsoever It's not common. I would say it's more common for people to not have anything written down Then it is for them to actually have you know, they're advanced rectives either one on file or two like Actually available at their house are written up So many patients don't think about what they want and that can get very very very messy Especially in an end-of-life ICU situation. I can't tell you how many times I have seen a patient have maybe An ex-wife that's not they're not legally divorced But per the state of Arizona, and I'm sure it's like this most places where you're at If you cannot make decisions for yourself It defaults to your next of kin and there's an order of who that would be and the first person is your spouse So if you're not legally divorced from your spouse They can make decisions for you whether you want them to or not and that can get very very very messy when Maybe they don't have a great relationship Or maybe it defaults to your your daughter or your son or your parents or whatnot And you don't you don't want decision them to make decisions for you Or maybe you know that your spouse would keep you alive forever But you have certain criteria of what you would want when you would want to be kept alive and when you wouldn't You can see how messy This whole situation can get very quickly, especially when you're dealing with highly sick patients in highly stressful and emotional situations Families friends are already on edge as is and if you don't have what you want written down It can be very messy and I'm sure a lot of us nurses have seen this in one form or another So what that being said my husband and I made sure we got our advanced directives done We've got our health care power of attorneys situated our mental health power of attorney Financial power attorney living will all of that stuff. We got that written down and set in stone and we used A good friend named Lindsay who actually has an Instagram on here. So if you're in the state of Arizona, I Recommend you look at her. She is Phenomenal very quick very knowledgeable and her pricing is very affordable So if you're needing a resource and you're in the state of Arizona, you have to be in Arizona Unfortunately, I will link her Instagram so you can go check her out But regardless of which state you're in I highly recommend you get some Some form of something down written down and written up legally and if you can't or you can't afford it or what not then at least talk to Your next of kin person whoever that may be and let them know what your wishes are I cannot tell you how many times that I have come home from work and I've told my husband like straight up like Do not keep me alive if x y and z happens This is what I saw at work today and like if I have no quality of life like do not keep me alive And he's probably like what the heck happened at work But I'm sure so many of you come home and you tell your significant other or your friends or whatnot like look If this happens, don't you know, don't keep me around I don't want to be around if this happens and it probably scares them a little bit But we just as nurses see the like realistic side of what Happens to two patients and what like quality of life looks like and so I really encourage you to think about what you would want If you're in a situation where you can't make decisions for yourself And what that would look like and get it down and writing if you can so I have to say if you have any questions about advanced directives or Maybe you're struggling with talking to patients about this or talking to your partner or whatever Leave me your questions in the comments below. Thank you for watching this video Make sure you check out Lindsay if you're looking for someone in Arizona to do your advanced directives and I'll see you in my next video Bye