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Ensuring the Patient's Participation

Ronald L. Stephens, MD

JAMA. 1986;255(2):240-241.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

A RECENT issue of THE JOURNAL contains the encouraging results of Youngner et al,¹ who found a willingness among physicians in a large university hospital to write a "do not resuscitate" (DNR) order for patients then residing in the medical intensive care unit. The authors found that 14% of the patients, otherwise requiring the more concentrated nursing attention of an intensive care unit, had received a DNR order. While it was reassuring that patients were given the level of care dictated by their medical condition despite their DNR status, the authors did raise the issue of overtreatment and proper allocation of limited medical resources.

In an accompanying editorial, Veatch² both praised the Youngner et al study and also raised important ethical concerns over how the decision to write a DNR order was reached. The amount of actual participation by the patient in the decision not to undergo resuscitation . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Division of Clinical Oncology, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City.

Footnotes
Reprint requests to the Division of Clinical Oncology, University of Kansas Medical Center, 39th Street and Rainbow Boulevard, Kansas City, KS 66103 (Dr Stephens).

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