In the Viewpoint column in the March issue of AJN, a staff nurse at an oncology center argues that we can improve our use of color-coded wristbands to communicate patient DNR status. There’s also a short podcast interview with the author below, in which she explains that her motivation for writing this article was “a near-miss” on her unit several years ago.

A lot of attention has been paid lately to the reasons why clinicians don’t follow end-of-life preferences in advance directives. Overaggressive care by some physicians is one reason, as is the vagueness of the language used in advance directives to express treatment preferences. Author Blima Marcus

Another major reason advance directives are ignored is lack of immediate access to a patient’s end-of-life preferences at critical moments, such as during a code. This month’s Viewpoint column, “Communicating Patient DNR Status Using Color-Coded Wristbands,” is by Blima Marcus, a doctoral student at the Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing in New York City as well as an RN at the NYU Langone–Perlmutter Cancer Center. Marcus points out that a “patient’s choice of do-not-resuscitate (DNR) status is a major one, and communicating this status in the hospital is often the responsibility of nurses.”

However, she argues, paper and/or electronic chart documentation of patient end-of-life preferences isn’t always adequate, given clinical realities, and can leave “communication […]