One of Our Toughest Cases Related to Living Wills

Learning about clinical ethics can help physicians and health care professionals understand how to honor and advocate for an incapacitated patient’s rights, especially when the patient’s end-of-life wishes are stated in a living will. Living wills cannot cover all possible clinical scenarios. This course will examine a challenging case where conflicting decisions were being made by the legal decision-maker and explore approaches the healthcare provider might use when he/she is talking with families who are conflicted in their decisions.

Target Audience

Physicians, Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, Social Workers, Medical Students and other interested healthcare professionals. 

Learning Objectives

  • Identify how the Living Will can impact end of life decision making for the health care team, the patient and family and the legal decision-maker.
  • Empathically approach families who are conflicted in their decision to continue full medical management or withhold or withdraw care.
Additional information
Bibliography: 

Institute of Medicine (US). Committee on Approaching Death: Addressing Key End-of-Life Issues. (2015). Dying in America: Improving Quality and Honoring Individual Preferences Near the End of Life. National Academies Press.

Course Summary
Available credit: 
  • 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
  • 1.00 General certificate of attendance
  • 1.00 Florida Board of Clinical Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Mental Health Counselors
  • 1.00 Nurse Practitioners
Course opens: 
02/01/2018
Course expires: 
01/31/2021

Luis A. de la Cruz, M.D., MBA
Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology and Intensive Care
Director of Education
Department of Anesthesiology
Baptist Health South Florida 
Clinical Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Medicine
FIU Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine

Susan Howard, MSN, RNBC
Clinical Ethics Consultant
Baptist Hospital of Miami

Due to the non-clinical nature of the content discussed, the speakers have no relevant financial relationships to disclose. This CME activity will not cover content that would involve products or services of commercial interests. Therefore no opportunity exists for a conflict of interest based on the financial relationships of faculty and those persons in control of content. Since these relationships are not relevant, no disclosure information was collected.

Disclosure Policy and Disclaimer

Baptist Health South Florida is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. Baptist Health has been re-surveyed by the ACCME and awarded Commendation for 6 years as a provider of CME for physicians.
              
Baptist Health South Florida designates this enduring material for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Available Credit

  • 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™
  • 1.00 General certificate of attendance
  • 1.00 Florida Board of Clinical Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Mental Health Counselors
  • 1.00 Nurse Practitioners
Please login or register for a Baptist Health CME account to take this course.

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