Stephaine Ryan

5720 Cedar Lake Rd.

Sheridan, MI 48884


February 26, 2014

Governor of Michigan Rick Snyder
P.O. Box 30013
Lansing, MI 48909

Dear Governor Snyder:

I am a Registered Nurse that is furthering my education at Ferris State University. As part of the
program I am completing, we must work with fellow nurses and students to find an area that the
community needs more knowledge and education. It was found that many adult patients eighteen
years old and over, do not have an advanced directive for their medical wishes.

According to the Ministry Health Care organization (2012), there are only 25-30% of people
have an advance directive (para. 1). Also they state in their article that half of patients are able
to make their own decisions at the time of serious illness and death, thus making their families
have to make difficult medical decisions for them. If these adult patients had an advanced
directive that stated their medical wishes, the family wouldnt have to make the hard decisions.
The decisions would have already been made for them. As a Registered Nurse, I have seen first-
hand families making the most difficult decisions a family has to make. With more funding for
hospitals and organizations to educate the public about the importance of having an advanced
directive it will increase the amount of advanced directives being filled out and give families
peace of mind.

With about seventy-five percent of individuals having an advanced directive to state medical
wishes leaves many families in the position to have to make those decisions for family members
that are seriously ill. When the public has more knowledge on the importance of obtaining
advanced directives hopefully more will be written. With more funding for organizations and
hospitals to organize classes to help the community make these statements will be greatly
appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,



Stephaine Ryan, RN

Reference
Ministry Health Care. (2013). Advance care planning and advanced directives. Retrieved from:
http://ministryhealth.org/MinistryHealth/Services/PalliativeCare/RelatedLinks/AdvanceC
arePlanningandAdvancedDirectives.nws