← Caregiver glossary · Legal + administrative
Also: do not resuscitate · DNAR · no code
A medical order signed by a physician (not just a patient request) that CPR will not be attempted if the heart stops. A DNR is a clinical order, lives in the medical chart, and travels with the patient between settings only if specific portable forms (POLST/MOLST) are used.
A DNR is the most specific advance-care order most patients ever sign. It says: if my heart stops or I stop breathing, do not attempt CPR (chest compressions, defibrillation, intubation). It does NOT say anything about other care — antibiotics for an infection, surgery for an unrelated condition, hospitalization, IV fluids, pain medication, oxygen. Many families assume a DNR is a broader "do not treat" order; it isn't. A patient with a DNR is still entitled to (and almost always receives) full medical treatment for everything other than resuscitation after a cardiac arrest.
DNR status is set up in the hospital chart at admission (often as part of the standard code-status discussion); for it to follow the patient home or to a nursing facility, the family needs a POLST or MOLST form, which is a portable physician-signed order. A DNR that exists only in one hospital's chart will not be honored by EMS responding to a 911 call from the patient's home — they will perform CPR by default unless they see a POLST/MOLST or an equivalent state-specific out-of-hospital DNR form.
The decision to sign a DNR rests with the patient (or their healthcare proxy if the patient lacks capacity). It is reversible at any time. Most clinicians recommend reviewing code status every hospitalization and at significant changes in health. A DNR is not "giving up" — patients with DNRs receive every other treatment indicated by their condition.
Often discussed at hospital admission when patients are seriously ill. A DNR addresses only resuscitation — it does not limit other care (antibiotics, hospitalization, surgery, etc.).
Terms families frequently confuse with dnr.
An advance directive is a broader planning document that covers ventilation, nutrition, antibiotics, hospitalization preferences, etc. A DNR is just one specific clinical order about CPR. Many advance directives result in DNRs as one consequence — but a DNR alone doesn't cover the rest of the decisions an advance directive addresses.
POLST/MOLST is the portable physician-signed order form that makes DNR (and other end-of-life care preferences) follow the patient between settings — home, nursing facility, ambulance, ER. A DNR in a hospital chart only works at that hospital; a POLST works across the whole system.
Comfort care is a care approach focused on symptom relief instead of disease treatment. DNR is one specific order that often accompanies comfort care, but they're not the same thing. A patient can be DNR while still receiving disease-targeted treatment (e.g., chemotherapy with DNR), or they can be on comfort care without explicitly signing a DNR.
See also: all glossary terms · conditions by name · step-by-step playbooks