(File Photo: Source for Photo: A medical worker transports a patient at Mount Sinai Hospital, April 1, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

Reported by Zamone Perez, Keystone News Service

(Harrisburg, PA) As National Nurses Week comes to an end, one advocate is explaining the importance of nurses when discussing advance care planning, palliative care and hospice. Missy Moore has been a hospice nurse for more than 30 years. She says nurses should strive to do a better job at explaining complex components of advance directives. When patients better understand what an advance directive entails, she says it gives more power to patients. Moore says if someone doesn’t have a plan, it can mean difficulty in the hospital. According to the National Institutes of Health, just a third of Americans have taken the time to establish a directive for end-of-life care.