Nurses Need Education on Advance Health Care Directives, Reports Journal of Christian Nursing

September 16, 2014

(Eurekalert) – Research shows that, while most adults want their wishes for end-of-life care response, only about one-third have completed AHCDs. Despite the growing need for advance care planning, many health care professionals lack the knowledge to teach patients about advance directives. At the study hospital, there was a “recognized problem” with AHCD education. On admission, patients were provided with an AHCD information packet and told to ask a nurse if they had any questions. “However,” Maureen Kroning writes, “nurses expressed not fully understanding AHCDs, feeling incompetent to educate patients, nor did they believe AHCD education was an important part of their role.”