Overview
The Decision Has Two Layers
A code status label answers one narrow question: what should the healthcare team do if the client’s heart or breathing stops?
A code-status label answers one narrow question: what should the healthcare team do if the client’s heart or breathing stops? An advance directive or advance care plan is broader. It records the client’s wishes about future care and may identify who should decide if the client later cannot communicate. The practical nurse must keep these ideas connected without treating them as interchangeable. A DNR order does not mean no treatment, and a conversation with a family member does not by itself create a code-status order. Safe practice links the client’s wishes, decision-making capacity, substitute decision-maker authority, an authorized and applicable order, and the care that continues around that order.