Dnr Orders Essay

The most frequent challenge of DNR orders is the lack of one. A DNR order, “Is arguably one of the most important decisions in patient care. Previous research suggests that patients and families might lack general knowledge about what the term do not resuscitate implies and this confusion can lead to added stress at already difficult times” (Robinson, Boyko, Berkowitz, Calam, & Collins, 2012). This can present a situation where ethical and moral decision making collide for a nurse. Ethically speaking, the nurse is to follow and advocate for their patient’s wishes, however, in some cases patients have not made their families aware of DNR orders that they have in place. This can cause the nurse to be met with the emotional burden of watching …show more content…
It could also convince some nurses, against their better judgement and training, to go against their patient’s wishes in order to fulfill the needs of the loved ones. A literature study focused on examining the awareness of DNR’s orders found that, “When making a do-not resuscitate order for a loved one, many surrogate decision makers rely upon their own views rather than patient preferences. This lends further credence as to why the patient’s wishes should be discussed with loved ones as well as the medical team before the patient becomes ill and certainly before they become incompetent” (Robinson et al., 2012). The objective of this study was to determine what extent of a general population understood the meaning of a DNR order and who they preferred to discuss their options and decisions with. The study surveyed, “A total of 429 random patients from four family practices. The response rate was 90%. Most (84%) had heard of the term do-not-resuscitate while 86% preferred to discuss their decisions with the family physician.” (Robinson et al., 2012). This study found that most respondents were well informed about the meaning of DNR’s, but most did not have a discussion with family