Medical Wishes / Advanced Directives
Your Medical Wishes Forms
You have the right and responsibility to take an active part in decisions about your medical care, including decisions to accept or refuse medical treatment. You also have the right to prepare what is known as an “advance directive” about your future care.
Both the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, a Living Will, and IPOST are types of advance directives.
For help with forms to fill out for your medical wishes, forms are available online, or call Hospice of Siouxland for assistance with the form that will be best for you.
Download your specific state’s Advanced Directive Form:
Types of Advanced Directives
A Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care is a document in which you name another person, such as a family member or close friend, as your representative to make decisions about your care, custody, and medical treatment. Your representative will only make health care decisions for you if you become unable to do so.
A Living Will is a document in which you give instructions, in advance, regarding the types of medical treatment you do or do not want to receive if you become unable to make your own decisions. A Living Will declaration instructs your doctor to provide, withhold or withdraw life-sustaining procedures if you develop a terminal condition or become permanently unconscious.
The IPOST (Iowa Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment) is a binding medical order for using or forgoing medical treatments. It allows individuals to make their wishes known before their health deteriorates. IPOST is a way to turn the wishes expressed in advance directives into actual orders for patient care. Adults with the conditions such as Adult immune-deficiency Syndrome, Cancer, Dementia, Renal Disease, and Stroke would benefit from IPOST.
Five Wishes
Five Wishes is the first living will that talks about your personal, emotional, and spiritual needs as well as your medical wishes. Five Wishes becomes a document which leads an individual in identifying how he/she wishes to be cared for in the event of a terminal illness or if the person is unable to make health care decisions.
Hospice of Siouxland encourages you to utilize Five Wishes as a document to assist you in completing your advance directives. An important step in finalizing advance directives is to communicate wishes with your family and assure a copy of your advance directive is on file at your physician’s office.
Billfold-sized Copies of Advanced Directives
Hospice of Siouxland in conjunction with other health care providers in the Siouxland area have launched a community promotion to encourage individuals to complete advance directives.
Advance directives must be readily available in the event of an emergency situation. Yet, advance directives are often home in the safe and unavailable to health care providers in an emergency situation. Your advance directive may be copied, reduced to the size of a driver’s license and laminated for individuals to carry in their billfold. For more information about advance directives, please contact us by calling 712-233-4144 or 800-383-4545.
Educational Opportunities
Hospice of Siouxland is committed to supporting Siouxland’s healthcare providers as they care for patients who are living their final months of life.
Opportunities for education include topics honed for physicians, as well as in-services prepared for nursing facilities/assisted living facilities. Presentations also are available to community groups and service clubs.
Below is a list of classes and resources available:
- Hospice vs. Palliative Care
- Hospice Care 101
- Caring for Someone Who is Dying
- Pain Management
- Non-drug Symptom Management
- Opioid Facts
- What To Know About Dementia
- Communication Tips For Dementia
- Dementia Patient Activities
- What To Know About Alzheimer's Disease
- Delrium
- Managing Anxiety
- Managing Shortness of Breath
- Advance Directives
- Cultural Beliefs
- Cultural Influences at the End of Life
- Spiritual Distress
- The Final Days
- 5 Stages of Grief
- Caregiver Grief
- Grief and Mourning
- Grief In Children
- Preparing Children for Death
For more information, please contact Angie Boyle, Community Outreach Coordinator, at 712-233-4192, or via email at boylea@hospicemail.com.
