Make your health care wishes known
Create a Nevada health care directive with FindLaw’s attorney-created forms and easy step-by-step process.
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The benefits of a well-prepared Nevada health care directive
No one wants to plan for their own serious injury or incapacitation – but having a health care directive in place ensures that your life-sustaining health care treatment preferences are respected. Without a health care directive, your loved ones and doctors might make decisions you would not have preferred. A health care directive – one that adequately documents your health care treatment preferences – avoids this outcome, conveying your crucial choices when they matter most.
FindLaw provides everything you need:
How it works
The process takes less than an hour, and you can complete it from the comfort of your home.
Create an account
Create a secure account which is accessible through an easy dashboard you can access any time
Gather information
Decide who will be your health care agent/proxy, which treatments you would request or refuse and release your records
Complete your document
Answer all questions, then we’ll generate your digital documents for downloading, printing, and signing
Make it legal
Print and sign your document according to instructions. Give copies to your doctors and agent/proxy
Plan for your future with confidence
This free guide will help you:
Learn the most common estate planning terms
Understand the essential estate planning tools
Gather critical information with an estate planning checklist
What’s next to make my Nevada health care directive valid?
Take the following steps:
Sit down and make decisions on future health care treatments
This first step is where you survey your health care treatment options and anticipate future issues. If you are severely injured or otherwise incapacitated, what medical treatments do you consent to receive? Which treatments do you not agree to? These are the types of considerations that need to be made before you draft your Nevada health care directive.
Anticipate the types of life-sustaining care you would want to receive after you have been incapacitated, including but not limited to the following:
- Artificial hydration and nutrition
- Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
- Artificial respiration
- Other life-prolonging procedures that extend or prevent the natural dying process
Once you survey these treatments and feel secure in your long-term health care decisions, you may proceed with drafting your document.
Choose your agent
It is not required to name an agent in your health care directive, but it’s always a good idea. An agent is your advocate if you become so seriously injured or incapacitated that you cannot convey your own medical wishes. In Nevada, your agent holds what’s called “durable power of attorney” should you become unable to advocate for yourself.
Choose someone you trust and whom you are comfortable with advocating for your medical decisions. Additionally, it would be best to choose an alternate agent if your original agent is unable or unwilling to serve. This most usually occurs in an emergency when your original agent cannot be reached. If you decide to name agents in your health care directive, your document must include a form called “Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care.” That form will need to have the following information:
- The names of each agent
- Their addresses
- Their phone numbers
The Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care must be signed, dated, and observed by two witnesses. It can be completed and included alongside your Nevada health care directive.
Decide on notary or witnesses
Nevada law requires that your health care directive include either a notary seal or the signatures of two witnesses. You do not need both. Choose which of the following options best suits you:
- Sealed by a notary public: Nevada health care directives require two witnesses only if the document is not sealed by a notary public. A notary public is a public officer that performs specific non-contentious legal procedures. Notaries public fill various roles, but they can be found easily, like at your local bank. If you choose to go the notary route, they must view you sign your health care directive. They then must sign the document themselves and provide their notary seal.
- Viewed and signed by two witnesses: Your other option is to have your health care directive viewed and signed by two witnesses. If you choose this option, you do not need to secure a notary signature and seal. Instead, your health care directive requires your witnesses to sign, date, and print their names and residential addresses.
Sign your health care directive according to Nevada law
The most important part of the process is also the easiest. As documented above, your health care directive must either be signed in the presence of a notary public, or the signed document must be viewed by two witnesses who then also sign it.
Store your health care directive in a secure place and provide copies to all necessary parties
Once you have your completed, signed health care directive, make multiple copies for safekeeping and provide them to interested parties. Keep the original document secure in a safe or lockbox, and consider providing copies to the following people:
- Your health care provider
- Your agent
- Your backup agent
- Your loved ones
Commonly asked questions about Nevada health care directives
Health care directives are helpful documents that convey your health care treatment wishes to your health care provider if you become seriously injured or suffer from a debilitating illness. These documents can avoid uncertainty for both your doctors and your family at a vital time. In Nevada, health care directives pertain only to medical procedures and methods that prolong the dying process. This does not include directives on medication or pain relief.
Health care directives are sometimes loosely referred to as “declarations”, “living wills”, or “advanced health care directives” in Nevada. The terms vary by state, but FindLaw’s form is tailored specifically to Nevada state law.
These declarations convey wishes regarding the administration or refusal of life-sustaining treatment to your doctors. They go into effect in two situations:
- You are suffering from an incurable and irreversible medical condition that would quickly result in death if not for life-prolonging treatment
- You are unable to communicate due to incapacitation (e.g., you fall into a coma)
By considering your health care preferences as early as possible, you afford peace of mind for your loved ones should the unfortunate occur later on. With a service like FindLaw, it’s never been easier to record your treatment preferences discreetly and affordably.
You are not required to have a health care directive. But having one can save you and your loved ones from significant burden later on.
Suppose you suffer a traumatic injury that leaves you in a prolonged vegetative state. Without a health care directive, your doctors and family members may make decisions about your life that you would not have wanted. This can lead to infighting, indecision, and additional worry piled onto an unfortunate situation.
A health care directive bundled with a durable power of attorney can avoid the uncertainty described above. Drafting your form with a service like FindLaw can provide the peace of mind you and your loved ones deserve.
Yes. While the terms sound similar, these documents accomplish different goals. A last will and testament (or “will”) determines who gets your possessions and assets when you die.
Living wills, also called health care directives, do not deal with possessions or assets at all, and health care directives serve no purpose after you die. Health care directives are for conveying your life-sustaining treatment preferences if you are unable to make decisions on your own behalf.
In Nevada, durable powers of attorney are a different kind of advanced health care directive. These forms appoint an agent on your behalf to advocate for your medical wishes when you cannot. Unlike health care directives, Nevada law allows you to include instructions on treatment preferences beyond life support care.
While these forms are technically separate from a health care directive, they should be bundled together, and copies of both should be given to your agent and health care providers.
In Nevada, both health care directives and powers of attorney can be revoked or changed either orally or in writing. It is always best to have your revocation documented in writing.
You should make copies of all estate planning documents, both for yourself and any necessary parties. These parties should include agents, health care practitioners, and loved ones. Store personal copies in a secure location such as a safe or lockbox.
In addition, the Nevada Secretary of State maintains a “health care directive lockbox” registry where your medical providers can retrieve a copy of your advance directives (health care directives, powers of attorney, and do-not-resuscitate documents) in an emergency or illness.
Health care directives that are executed in compliance with the laws of their home state will be deemed valid in Nevada. If the documents violate the laws of their home state, Nevada law will apply.
You may want to speak with a lawyer if:
- Your family disagrees with your medical choices
- You don’t know who to appoint as your agent
- You have questions about life prolonging measures
- You want legal review of your completed document
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