(Radio Iowa) – Many Iowans have heard how important it is to have a will, but an advance care planning manager urges everyone over the age of 18 to also have a medical power of attorney. Registered nurse Denise Nicholson, at Emplify Health by Gundersen, says it’s not an easy conversation to have and people never think it’ll happen to them, but it’s an important legal step. Nicholson says too many articles talk about advance care planning as being for “end of life.”
“They talk about it as 65 or older, but at any given time, 18 and above, we could have a medical emergency, accident, or illness, and someone’s no longer able to make their own medical decisions,” Nicholson says. “I like to refer to it more as how do I want to live, not so much how do I want to die.” The document allows an adult to give another person the power to make health care decisions on their behalf. Medical power of attorney isn’t just for senior citizens, and Nicholson says it’s crucial for anyone of legal age. She says once you turn 18, if you haven’t planned ahead, there’s no longer a legal medical decision maker for you, should there be an emergency.
“Having an advance care directive, a power of attorney for health care, is our best defense to not needing to have the court appoint a guardian,” Nicholson says, “someone to make our decisions for us, who may or may not be somebody that we know, and could actually be the very person we -don’t- want to make decisions for us.” In her long career as a nurse, Nicholson says she’s seen first-hand how smoothly things run when someone plans ahead, and sadly, what happens when there was no prior planning.
“It can certainly ease the tension and the emotions surrounding it,” Nicholson says. “When no conversation has taken place, everyone has their own opinion and we can’t hear from the patient — who is the most important person in the room — and so it can cause a lot of discord. I have seen a lot of families pulled apart when planning doesn’t take place.” Nicholson says she lost her dad last July and he had been very verbal about his wishes, so the family was able to gather around him and had “a beautiful experience,” which is what she hopes for all families.
Emplify Health by Gundersen has clinics in Calmar, Decorah, Fayette, Lansing, Postville and Waukon, and a hospital in West Union.
