Final answer:
Nurses are essential in implementing end-of-life care wishes by coordinating with the healthcare team and the patient to ensure informed consent. Advance directives, such as living wills and DNR orders, allow patients to specify their treatment preferences in advance. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and dignity for terminally ill patients, often allowing them to spend their final days at home.
Step-by-step explanation:
Nurses implement a client's treatment and end-of-life care wishes by: ensuring that the creation of the plan of treatment has involved both the healthcare team and the patient, and that the client has given informed consent for the plan of treatment before implementation.
Individuals may establish advance directives such as a living will or a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) order to clearly articulate their end-of-life wishes. This planning allows patients to convey their decisions regarding medical interventions, designating a healthcare proxy, and other preferences when they might become incapable of communicating their desires. The patient's values and choices are often shaped by their religious, cultural, and familial influences.
Hospice care represents a shift in addressing the needs of terminally ill patients, focusing on comfort, dignity, and pain management rather than curative measures. Families receive support, and patients are often able to spend their final days in a familiar setting at home. Nursing professionals, alongside the broader healthcare team, play a crucial role in respecting and carrying out these end-of-life care decisions with empathy and professionalism.