Lesson Plan: The Trouble With Advance Directives: Doctors Often Miss Them
II. While Reading Activities
Word Inference
- advance directive noun-a written statement of a person’s wishes regarding medical treatment, often including a living will, made to ensure those wishes are carried out should the person be unable to communicate them to a doctor.
- intensive care |inˈtensiv ˈˌke(ə)r| noun-special medical treatment in which a patient who is dangerously ill is kept under constant observation, typically in a dedicated department of a hospital: the baby survived in intensive care | he was in a critical condition and needed intensive care | [as modifier] : she’s in the intensive-care unit.
- discharge verb |disˈCHärj| [with object]1 tell (someone) officially that they can or must leave, in particular: • send (a patient) out of the hospital because they are judged fit to go home.
- oncologist |änˈkäləjəstäNGˈkäləjəstônˈkäləjəstôNGˈkäləjəst| noun- Medicine a medical practitioner qualified to diagnose and treat tumors.
- ultrasounds |ˈəltrəˌsound| noun -sound or other vibrations having an ultrasonic frequency, particularly as used in medical imaging.
- intubation |ˈint(y)o͞oˌbāt| verb [with object] Medicine –insert a tube into (a person or a body part, especially the trachea for ventilation).
- prognosis |präɡˈnōsəs| noun (plural prognoses |-ˌsēz| ) the likely course of a disease or ailment: the disease has a poor prognosis.
- documentation |ˌdäkyəmənˈtāSH(ə)n| noun-1 material that provides official information or evidence or that serves as a record: you will have to complete the relevant documentation.
- incentives|inˈsen(t)iv| noun-a thing that motivates or encourages one to do something: there is no incentive for customers to conserve water.
- fumbling |ˈfəmbəl| verb [no object] express oneself or deal with something clumsily or nervously: asked for explanations, Michael had fumbled for words.
Reading Comprehension
Sentence Match
- This patient had done everything we could have asked.
- It’s tempting to assume that if you tell one doctor what you want at the end of your life, that’s enough.
- For the past year, I delved into the unexpectedly interesting world of advance care planning.
- Recently, a handful of start-ups have stepped in, trying to offer a solution.
- There’s software and clever patient apps that work outside the electronic record.
- Just imagine, your doctor is fumbling to find your information in your chart, but you have an advance directive that was safely uploaded onto your smartphone.
- This most likely could have helped my patient that day.
- At least, all related advance care planning documentation should be in one place in the medical record.
- Beyond that, maybe all health systems could require identification of a health care proxy for all patients.
- Yet as it is, we’re playing catch-up.
1-d–patient
2-j–doctor
3-a–care
4-f-handful
5-c–clever
6-g-information
7-i-patient
8-e–medical record
9-h-health systems
10-b–playing catch-up
Grammar Focus: Word -Recognition
When the resident arrived outside my patient’s room, he was relieved to see that the elderly man was still breathing on his own. The E.D. attending had held off. The patient’s family was on the way. Up in the I.C.U., we treated him gently with fluids and antibiotics and oxygen. He never did get strong enough to make it back home, but I think he was quiet and comfortable in the end, as he had wanted.
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