What is the term for the arrangement where a health care proxy is chosen to make health care decisions on the client's behalf if the client can no longer decide?

• A. Durable power of attorney
• B. Health care proxy
• C. Informed consent
• D. DNR

Answer: (B)

This question tests understanding of who steps in to make medical decisions when a patient can’t. A health care proxy is the designated person who acts as the patient’s decision maker for health care, guiding treatments and choices based on the patient’s wishes or best interests if the patient is unable to decide themselves. This arrangement is a type of advance directive and is intended to ensure care aligns with the patient’s values even when they can’t vocalize them.

In practice, the health care proxy is often named in a durable power of attorney for health care—the legal document that grants someone the authority to make medical decisions if capacity is lost. That’s why the term commonly used in this context is health care proxy: it highlights the role of the agent who makes decisions on the patient’s behalf.

Informed consent is about the patient’s voluntary agreement to treatments while they have decision-making capacity. DNR is a directive about whether to perform resuscitation. The durable power of attorney is the legal document that enables the proxy’s authority, not the arrangement itself, though it’s closely related.