Patient Guide: Getting Ready for Your ACP (Advance Care Planning) Visit

 

During your visit, your medical team may talk with you about your wishes for future health care—especially if you ever become too sick to make decisions for yourself.

Planning ahead is a gift to your family and your care team. It helps them make choices that match your values and what matters most to you.

Please think about the questions below and, if you can, write down your thoughts before your appointment.

1. Choosing Your Medical Decision Makers

If you are ever too sick to make your own decisions, you will need trusted people who can speak for you.

Who should you choose?
These people should:

  • Know you well
  • Understand your health
  • Be able to answer phone calls from doctors and nurses

 

These people may also be called a Medical Power of Attorney in a legal form known as an Advance Directive.

Questions to consider:

  • Who is your Primary Medical Decision Maker? ___________________________________   Relationship to you: _______________________________
  • Who is your Secondary (backup) Decision Maker if your first choice cannot serve?_____________________________________   Relationship to you: _________________________________

2. What Matters Most to You?

Think about what makes life meaningful and what helps you feel like yourself. People often answer in different ways:

Some people want to:

  • Take care of themselves
  • Not be a burden
  • Be able to eat, bathe, or use the bathroom on their own
  • Stay awake and alert enough to talk and enjoy TV or hobbies

Others say:

  • Comfort and being able to function day‑to‑day are most important
  • They want to live as long as possible, even if it means more treatments, hospital visits, or pain
  •  

What matters most to you about your health and daily life? ______________________________________________________________________________

3. Thinking About Where You Want to Be

Serious illness usually brings slow changes, with good days and harder days. You may have times of weakness or need more help than usual.

Even though we cannot predict everything, you can still share your wishes about where you want to be if your health gets much worse.

Where would you prefer to spend your final days, weeks, or months?

  • At home?
  • In a nursing home or care facility?

 

What feels most right for you? ________________________________________________________________________________________

 

4. Understanding “Code Status” Choices

Your “code status” tells the medical team what to do if your heart or breathing struggles to the point of stopping. Your doctor will help guide you through these choices.

 

DNR (Do Not Resuscitate)

  • You still receive full, aggressive treatment as long as your heart and lungs are working well enough to respond to the treatment being given.
  • You can still receive all needed medicines, oxygen, and even intensive care.
  • But if your heart or breathing stops, the team will not perform CPR or place a breathing tube.

 

Full Code

  • If your heart or breathing struggles to the point of stopping, the team will use all medical treatments to try to restart them.
  • This may include CPR, electric shocks, a breathing tube, machines, and strong medicines.
  • These treatments can require heavy sedation, which means you may not be awake or able to make decisions.

If Full Code matches your wishes, your medical team may also talk with you about long‑term breathing support (a tracheostomy) or long‑term feeding support (a PEG tube).

5. Remember: Your Choices Can Change

Your health may change over time, and your wishes may change too.
It is important to review your choices if:

  • You develop a new illness
  • You have a hospital stay and decline in function
  • A decision maker dies or is no longer able to help
  • What matters most to you shifts

 

Your medical team is here to help you get the right care at the right time in the right place—based on your values.