[villagerjudy]

Yes I am a nurse and work in surgical services so one of my responsibilities to check to see if a customer (LOL notice the upgrade from patient) has any advance directives. FYI a living will is only a "suggestion" as to what you want done. If there is ANY family member who chooses to ignore the Living Will and tells the doctor to "save Mom....do EVERYTHING". Everything will be done until there is a CONSENSUS of family member to stop doing EVERYTHING and that isn't an easy thing to get in the middle of a health care crisis. Translation a living will isn't worth much. A "Heath Care Power of Attorney" designates ONE person to make your health care decisions. Their decisions will override even someone closer in relationship. It is essential that the Health Care POA has the guts to stand up to "Aunt Tillie" and say "NO!!! Mom didn't want to live the next three years in a nursing home pooping in her bed".

[Barefoot]

Villager Judy:

Good information about having a Health Care POA. Is there an "on-line" form that one can fill out and have notarized, or is it necessary to use a Florida lawyer?

Hi VillagerJudy: Good information. Just went through this with my Mom in Delaware. Took us months to get to this vital information. We finally had an attorney draw up a POA indicating WHO in the family(with another family member listed in case the appointed one is out of town or "unavailable") she wanted to make the decision. We paid about $80 for the att'y to draw up the papers. Good deal, and now we feel much more at ease, as does Mom. Where would you recommend a F/T villager/nurse get a job? I'd like to move down there in the next two years and I would be working f/t. I can't really determine if the pay scales there are the same as the east or west coast. Any info would be appreciated. You can email me directly if you'd rather, that would be great. At mamacrev@hotmail.com. Thanks.

[villagerjudy]

I work F/T at TVRH. They do try hard to make it a good place to work. Health insurance is excellent (and they only make P/T work 20 hours for health benefits. Level 2 nurses with 12 years critical care are around $26.00/hr, night shift diff is $5.00/hr. I came from So. Georgia so that was a pay raise but it is a cut from the larger cities. Orlando pays more but the drive is awful. Ocala and Leesburg are about the same. If you don't need insurance agency pays well.

thanks Villagerjudy. Some good information once again. Unfortunately, I will need insurance so that will be a must for me. But thanks for giving me this bit of info. It's a start.

[Village Kid 2]

I have been through this process with both parents. In my experience, here is what is needed:

1. Will - distributes assets
2. Power of Attorney - authorizes someone to make decisions about your assets if you are incapacitated.
3. Health Care Surrogate - authorizes someone to make decisions for you about your health care.
4. Living Will - tells how you would like to be treated if you are incapacitated. This is more of a "wish list".
5. Do Not Resusitate Order - tells health care providers that you do not want to be resusitated if something happens to you and you are in a terminal state or if your quality of life will not be good if you are resusitated.

The hospitals and Hospice have some of the health forms and they can also be found online. I recommend an attorney for the Will and POA.