SCHOLAR DIRECTORY

I chose to go into nursing to serve in rural and small US communities. I currently serve as a clinical educator and charge nurse at a long-term acute care hospital, which is the facility of choice in our area for ventilator weaning and advanced treatment of patients, including veterans, of all ages. Additionally, I am the Pathway to Excellence project director for our facility, as we just submitted our document to make us candidates for the Pathway to Excellence designation. My research will be based around the need for better patient and staff education about advanced directives, better systems to transmit these directives, and following directives based on patient preferences. In my current facility, we see many families and patients struggling with end-of-life decisions after the patient has been critically ill for an extended period of time. With amazing technology and the ability to access our patients’ healthcare record at every stage in care, why is an advance directive so difficult to make portable? Why are healthcare providers afraid to talk about end of life? How can we make this better?