By Ilan Ledner, CSW
Social Work Supervisor
Frances Schervier Home and Hospital
In a recent literature review that I conducted on the elderly and advance directives for health care I came across several articles which I thought might be of interest to some, and perhaps all the readers of the NYCLTCEN newsletter. In general, the professional literature consists of two categories of articles on advance directives: conceptual and research. The conceptual literature has been quite successful in raising our level of consciousness regarding issues pertaining to advance end-of-life treatment planning and the research literature has provided evidence regarding the complexity of these issues.
For the readers’ convenience, the references have been arranged under several distinct categories. A more comprehensive reference list will be distributed at the conference.
Conceptual Books and Articles
Buchanan, A.E., & Brock, D.W. (1989). Deciding for others: The ethics of surrogate decision making. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Collopy, B. J. (1994). Frail but still autonomous: The self-determination of the elderly in long-term care: The critical role of care providers. American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging Monograph Series.
Minogue, B. (1996). Bioethics: A committee approach. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Wesley, C. A. (1996). Social work and end-of-life decisions: Self-determination and the common good. Health and Social Work, 21(2), 115-121.
Research articles
Preferences regarding life-sustaining treatment
Caralis, P.V., Davis, B., Wright, K., & Marcial, E. (1993). The influence of ethnicity and race on attitudes toward advance directives, life-prolonging treatments, and euthanasia. The Journal of Clinical Ethics, 4 (2), 155-165.
Heffner, J. E., Fahy, B., Hilling, L., & Barbieri, C. (1996). Attitudes regarding advance directives among patients in pulmonary rehabilitation. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 154 (6 Part 1), 1735-1740.
Stability of preferences
Danis, M., Garrett, J., Harris, R., & Patrick, D.L. (1994). Stability of choices about life-sustaining treatments. Annals of Internal Medicine, 120 (7), 567-573.
Lee, M. A., Smith, D. M., Fenn, D. S., & Ganzini, L. (1998). Do patients’ treatment decisions match advance statements of their preferences? The Journal of Clinical Ethics, 9 (3), 258-262.
Surrogates’ knowledge of principals’ end-of-life treatment preferences
Libbus, M.K., & Russell, C. (1995). Congruence of decisions between patients and their potential surrogates about life-sustaining therapies. Image: Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 27 (2),135-140.
Sansone, P., & Phillips, M. (1995). Advance directives for elderly people: Worthwhile cause or wasted effort? Social Work, 40 (3), 397-401.
Suhl, J., Simons, P., Reedy, T., & Garrick, T. (1994). Myth of substituted judgment: Surrogate decision making regarding life support is unreliable. Archives of Internal Medicine, 154 , 90-96.
Knowledge of Advance Directives
Fischer, G.S., Tulsky, J.A., Rose, Mr.R., Siminoff, L.A., & Arnold, R.M. (1998). Patient knowledge and physician predictions of treatment preferences after discussion of advance directives. Journal of Internal Medicine, 13, 447-454.
Heffner, J. E., Fahy, B., Hilling, L., & Barbieri, C. (1996). Attitudes regarding advance directives among patients in pulmonary rehabilitation. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, 154 (6 Part 1), 1735- 1740.
Completion of Advance Directives
Holley, J. L., Stackiewicz, L., Dacko, C., & Rault, R. (1997). Factors influencing dialysis patients’ completion of advance directives. American Journal of Kidney Diseases, 30 (3), 356-360.
Meier, D. E., Gold, G., Mertz, K., Taylor, B., Cammer-Paris, B. E., Seckler, A., & Mulvihill, M. (1996). Enhancement of proxy appointment for older persons: Physician counseling in the ambulatory setting. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 44 (1), 37-43.
The role of the family
Hoffmann, D.E., Itkin Zimmerman, S., & Tompkins, C. (1997). How close is enough? Family relationships and attitudes toward advance directives and life-sustaining treatments. Journal of Ethics, Law and Aging, 3 (1) 5-24.
Health care professionals and Advance Directives
Chichin, E.R., Ferster, L., & Gordon, N. (1994). Planning for the end-of-life with the home care client. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 22 (1/2), 147-159.
Clark, P.G. (1997). Values in health care professional socialization: Implications for geriatric education in interdisciplinary teamwork. The Gerontologist, 37(4), 441-450.
Fleming, C. M., & Scanlon, M.C. (1994). The role of the nurse in the Patient Self- Determination Act. Journal of the New York State Nurses Association, 25(2), 19-23.
Meier, D. E., Gold, G., Mertz, K., Taylor, B., Cammer-Paris, B. E., Seckler, A., & Mulvihill, M. (1996). Enhancement of proxy appointment for older persons: Physician counseling in the ambulatory setting. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 44(1), 37-43.
Mezey, M., Mitty, E., Rappaport, M., & Ramsey, G. (1997). Implementation of the Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA) in nursing homes in New York City. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 45(1), 43-49.
Teno, J. M., Lynn, J., Wenger, N., Phillips, R. S., Murphy, D. P., Connors, A. F., Desbiens, N., Fulkerson, W., Bellamy, P., & Knaus, W. A. (1997). Advance directives for seriously ill hospitalized patients: Effectiveness with the patient self- determination act and the support intervention. Journal of American Geriatrics Society, 45(4), 500-507.
Walker, L., Wetle, T., & Blencher, B. (1995). Do-not-resuscitate orders in nursing homes: Institutional policies and practices. Journal of Ethics, Law and Aging,1(2), 97-106.
Patients’ capacity to complete Advance Directives
Mezey, M., Mitty, E., & Ramsey, G. (1997). Assessment of decision-making capacity: Nursing’s role. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 23(3), 28-35.
Sansone, P., Schmitt, L., Nichols, J., Phillips, M., & Belisle, S. (1998). Determining the capacity of demented nursing home residents to name a health care proxy. Clinical Gerontologist, 19(4), 35-50.
Ethnicity and Advance Directives
Morrison, R.S., Zayas, L.H., Mulvhill, M., Baskin, S.A., & Meier, D.E. (1998). Barriers to completion of health care proxies: An examination of ethnic differences. Archives of Internal Medicine, 158, 2493-2497.
Randall, V.R. (1994). Ethnic Americans, long-term health care providers, and the Patient Self-Determination Act. In, Marshall, B. Kapp (Ed.), Patient self-determination in long-term care: Implementing the PSDA in medical decisions. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
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