Advance Directives

Advance Directives are legal forms that state a person's preferences about their future medical and mental health care.

South Carolina recognizes the following Advance Directive Documents: Living Will, Health Care Power of Attorney, and Five Wishes.

Patients can complete either a state advance directive form or a VA form, but not both.

State Authorized Portable Orders are specialized forms or identifiers (bracelet/necklace) authorized by state law that translate a patient’s preferences with specific end-of-life treatment decisions into portable medical orders.

DNR template note is completed by the nurse and the orders will be scanned into the medical record.

Nursing will be responsible for assuring that patients have been provided with written information about Advance Directive documents upon admission.

In the event the patient or surrogate changes their mind after the DNR order has been written, the order will be rescinded immediately by a physician; the Healthcare Unit Coordinator/Nurse taking off the rescinded order will send an Outlook or VISTA e-mail to change the title of the DNR note to “Rescission of DNR.”

On admission, all patients will be asked by the admitting nurse if they have an Advance Directive; the nurse will document the reply in the Nursing Admission Assessment in CPRS.

If the patient does not have an Advance Directive and would like more information, providing verbal education will suffice.

Nursing in Primary Care does not need to inquire if a patient has an Advance Directive.