British Diana Oct 28, 2023:

"do not attempt" is an instruction to the carer The whole point of the phrase "do not attempt resuscitation" in my opinion is that it is an instruction to the doctor, nurse, carer or whoever else might find themselves in a position to have to decide whether they should TRY to resuscitate the patient. Thus I don't agree with the wording of the true/false answer "the patient is not for resuscitation". As Michael says, this is at best cryptic, at the worst it is introducing a further aspect. The carer is not being called upon to decide whether or not the patient should be (from a medical or ethical standpoint) or wants to be (from a personal standpoint) resuscuitated. The carer simply has to follow the instruction, which is not to ATTEMPT i.e. not to start the process by which the patient might or might not be successfully resuscitated, whether it is "worth" doing so. I say this because it can sometimes take a long time before it is clear whether the patient is responding to the procedure.
This is admittedly a subtle difference because the outcome will be the same as when the message is merely "This is a patient who is not to be resuscitated" but I think it lightens the burden on the carer.

Michael Beijer Oct 20, 2023:

- I'm assuming the Asker read 'be for' as 'be in for'.

Jennifer Levey Oct 20, 2023:

@Asker Where does the phrase in the subject-line be in for appear in your source text?

Michael Beijer Oct 20, 2023:

~ To be honest, I find the phrase "the patient is not for resuscitation" slightly cryptic, but then again, a lot of medical language is exactly that.

Obviously, the meaning has to be something like:

• the patient is not to be resuscitated
• the patient does not wish to be resuscitated

see e.g.:

Since the term DNR implies the omission of action, and therefore "giving up", a few authors have advocated for these orders to be retermed Allow Natural Death.[83][84] Others say AND is ambiguous whether it would allow morphine, antibiotics, hydration or other treatments as part of a natural death.[85][86] New Zealand and Australia, and some hospitals in the UK, use the term NFR or Not For Resuscitation. Typically these abbreviations are not punctuated, e.g., DNR rather than D.N.R.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_resuscitate )