Some websites offer introductions to and advance directives.
- General information about advance directives can be found at healthfinder.gov.
- American Bar Association Commission on Aging
- Giving Someone a Power of Attorney For Your Health Care
- Glossary: Terms related to Advance Directives and End of Life Care
- POLST Paradigm Initiative
POLSTs are primarily for those with serious life-threatening illnesses or advanced life-limiting conditions. The POLST initiative began in 1991 through the efforts of The Center for Ethics in Health Care at Oregon Health & Science University. Here is an OHSU’s information guide comparing POLSTs and Advance Directive. POLSTs documents are currently used in 14 states and being considered in 22 more. The National Catholic Bioethics Center, however, “favors the designation of a health care agent” (a person) over any type of advance directive, including POLSTs.
Rebecca Sudore, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, Division of Geriatrics, University of California, San Francisco; staff physician, San Francisco VA Medical Center discusses several problems with advance care planning and what she calls a “new paradigm” of advance care planning.
Lots of information and sources are available in the tip sheet “What do reporters need to know about Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST)?“
Here are articles about advance directives and POLSTs.
- “Advance Directives for End-of-Life Medical Decisions,” JAMA
- “Decisions about End of Life Care,” JAMA
- “End-of-life care: an Oregon innovation helps people avoid unwanted interventions,” Joe Rojas-Burke, The Oregonian
- “Enough: The failure of the living will,” Hastings Center Report, 2004 (report)
- “Systemic Review: the effect on surrogates of making treatment decisions for others,” Weldner, D, Rid A., Ann Intern Med (abstract)
- “The Consistency Between Treatments Provided to Nursing Facility Residents and Orders on the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment Form,” Hickman, S.E, PhD., et. al , J American Geriatrics Society
- “The Evolution of Advance Directives,” D. B. White, MD and R. M. Arnold, MD, JAMA,
- “The POLST Paradigm Improves End of Life Care,” Getz, L, Aging Well Magazine
- “The POLST Paradigm: Respecting the Wishes of Patients and Families,” Dunn, P.M, MD, et. al, Ann of Long Term Care
- “They are going to unplug grandma: Advance directive discussions and documentation do not decrease survival in patients at baseline lower risk of death,” Fischer, S. M., MD, J Hospital Medicine
- “Use of the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) Paradigm Program in the Hospice Setting,” Hickman, S.E, PhD, et. al, J Palliative Medicine