National Healthcare Decisions Day in the Era of COVID

by Emily Riegel (@emriegel)“Why did I keep stressing what was and was not normal, when nothing ... was?” -- Joan Didion,The Year of Magical Thinking“Certainty? In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” -- Benjamin FranklinIn normal times, under non-pandemic circumstances, yesterday being April 15 would have marked the United States ’ traditional Tax Day. With one certainty, taxes, already rescheduled, we know that we are not in certain or normal times. This year, the novel coronavirus pandemic elevates the immediacy of that other certainty: death.Since 2008, April 16 is designated as National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD). According toThe Conversation Project, “this day exists to inspire, educate and empower the public and providers about the importance of advance care planning.” It is a day that people are encouraged to think about things such as living wills, or advance directives, or durable power of attorney. It is also a day for people to simply begin the conversations about how they want life to look even in the face of death.It is in the particulars of the way that the novel coronavirus behaves, infects, and manifests in us that further raises the urgency to pay attention to advance care planning. By now, it has been widely reported that this virus can strike people of any age, and create a critical illness scenario in an unexpectedly short timeframe. People have heard about ventilators, life support, acute respiratory distress syndrome (AR...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - Category: Palliative Care Tags: advance care planning covid nhdd riegel Source Type: blogs