A review of the literature concerned with the do-not-resuscitate decision showed that the nurse was left out of the decision-making process. What effect this had on the nurse as a professional and as a person was not identified. The purpose of this study was to describe and explain how the nurse understood the do-not-resuscitate (DNR) decision and how she interpreted her role within the DNR process.

Interviews were conducted with 77 nurses employed in the general medical-surgical and critical care units of three midwestern hospitals. Each hospital policy allowed for a varying amount of nurse involvement in the do-not-resuscitate decision-making process. A minimally structured interview guide was used and grounded theory methodology was employed to analyze the results.

A conceptual framework evolved from the data that had, as its basic social structural process, accommodation. Analysis indicated that nurses accommodated to the do-not-resuscitate decision either by active or passive involvement and consequences of that accommodation were either negative or positive. The accommodation process was seen as a dynamic interaction between the do-not-resuscitate decision and the nurse, with preexisting determinants and factors influencing how the nurse found meaning in the decision.

The study had implications for nurses and nursing, as well as society, medicine, law, moral action, and institutions. Research that would investigate reactions to the DNR decision in patients and their families and other health care professionals is recommended. Nursing should support educational programs which will help consumers understand end-of-life choices. Health care professionals, including nurses and nurse ethicists, must actively support the use of advance directives for all health care consumers and promote honoring the wishes of persons.