Hi,
I am a nursing student and my husband is a RN in an ICU. He tells me that a patient will come in as a DNR and then the patients family will talk to the doctor and then the doctor will change the patients code status to full code.
Why do you think this happens? It's my understanding that if the patient wanted to be DNR, this should be respected regardless of how the family feels about it. Doesn't the doctor have a legal responsibility to respect the patients signed DNR order?
Do you think this happens because doctors don't want to have a confrontation with the family and it's "easier" to comply with the families wishes rather than have the family feel as though the doctor is "letting" the patient die?
My husband tells me that a lot of the patients in the ICU are from nursing homes, have severe dementia and are bed bound, with minimal to no LOC. It seems sad to me that they are being kept alive on ventilators against their documented wishes.
Is this legal? Is it ethical? Is it prevalent in your experiences as RN's? Or is the hospital my husband works at the exception?
Thanks for any feedback you are able to offer. I'm just sort of baffled by this issue.