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The Patient Self Determination Act (PSDA)

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1. The person I chose to interview was my Healthcare Legal & Regulatory Environment (HSM 330) professor, Mary Donnelly, JD, RN. Professor Donnelly has a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Nursing, a Juris Doctor in law, and a Master’s degree in Bioethics. The combination of clinical work, knowledge of law and graduate study in Bioethics is a good combination for her work as a Bioethics Consultant at Loyola University Medical Center.
2. The reason I chose Professor Donnelly was because of her expert knowledge on the topic I wanted to attain more information on: The Patient Self Determination Act (PSDA). I had a lot of questions regarding the PSDA and while taking the course with her, she mentioned having knowledge about this act. Professor …show more content…

The Patient Self Determination Act is a federal act in the United States, that was passed in 1990. It has benefited American society and public policy in that it legalizes an adult’s right to refuse treatment, from beginning or to discontinue treatment that the adult has already started. This refusal may occur when the adult has decisional capacity, or, if decisional capacity is lot, by the decision maker appointed by the adult. In addition, the PSDA made and makes advance directives more available, and increases awareness of their existence. Decision makers may be appointed in one form of the advance directives, known as a power of attorney for health …show more content…

If a patient becomes incapacitated en route to the hospital, hospital officials may still interface with certain family members to ensure that a patient’s rights relative to withholding or withdrawing treatment or advance directives are upheld.
b. This was somewhat new information to me, because in emergency situations I thought that the doctors acted immediately because of EMTALA, but apparently, they still must check with the patient’s wishes or with the appointed decision maker or take out the advance directive.
3. How is the PSDA different from end of life care?
a. The PSDA is a law that allows patients to refuse care, either by themselves or through an agent that they have appointed to make their decisions. This may include end of life care, but is not limited to end of life care.
b. This was new information to me, because I thought of the PSDA to be the same thing as end of life care but it isn’t limited to end of life care. I also learned that the PSDA is just a way of planning for the future, but still many people fail to do.
4. If an individual was first in the hospital and then transferred to a nursing facility should both institutions meet the PSDA requirement? Or do they take word of mouth and hope that the other institution will take care of

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