End-Of-Life Decisions.

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Write an article for a community newsletter for a local retirement village that explains the laws, policies, and choices surrounding end-of-life health care decisions.

Nurses are at the bedside during the dying process; they spend entire shifts with patients and families; they develop trusting relationships; and they are competent to assess patient and family needs. Nurses gain a unique perspective that allows them to become aware when a patient is not responding to treatment. This perspective places nurses in a position to facilitate end-of-life decision making. (Adams, Bailey. Anderson, & Docherty, 2011, para. 4)

Assessment Instructions 

Your manager asked you to prepare an article for a community newsletter for a local retirement village. The editor wants you to talk about the laws, policies, and choices surrounding end-of-life health care decisions

Preparation 

Search the Capella library or the Internet for scholarly and professional peer-reviewed articles on end-of-life care. You will need at least three articles to use as support for your work on this assessment.

Directions

Write an article of 750–1,000 words (3–4 pages) that discusses the laws, policies, and choices surrounding end-of-life health care decisions. Address the following in your article: 

  • Describe the role of the nurse in end-of-life decision making with patients and their families.
  • Explain the legislation that generated end-of-life health care policies. Was the legislation an outcome of a specific medical case?
  • Identify the primary policies regarding current health care practices related to end-of-life health care decisions. How to these policies affect treatment decisions?
  • Explain the effect of end-of-life regulations and controls on patient outcomes. What effect does this have on the nurse-patient relationship?
  • Describe the ethical considerations that have influenced policy decisions in regard to end-of-life decisions.

Additional Requirements

Your article should meet the following requirements:

  • Written communication: Written communication should be free of errors that detract from the overall message.
  • References: Cite a minimum of three resources; a majority of these should be peer-reviewed sources. Your reference list should be appropriate to the body of literature available on this topic that has been published in the past 5 years.
  • APA format: Resources and citations should be formatted according to current APA style and formatting.
  • Length: 750–1,000 words or 3–4 typed, double-spaced pages, excluding title page and reference page. Use Microsoft Word to complete the assessment.
  • Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12-point.