Compliance with advance directives: nursing's view

The purpose for this article is to define the terms of the Advance Directive within the legal and medical community and then to explore the bioethical implications of the Advance Directive for the nurse. Over the last decade, a legal document has entered the arena of the health care facility: the Advance Directive. Today, not only is the critical care nurse responsible for technical handling of the ever-changing medical equipment, advances in medicine and nursing, and new pharmaceuticals, but this nurse is also responsible for being ever cognizant of a very important legal document called the Advance Directive.