To get a Do Not Resuscitate form in Virginia, you need your physician to complete and sign the state’s official Durable DNR Order form with you. It isn’t a court filing or a document you can prepare on your own — the order carries legal weight only when a physician who has an established relationship with you issues it on the form approved by the Virginia Board of Health. Once signed, the form travels with you and instructs EMS and other providers not to attempt resuscitation if your heart stops or you stop breathing.
Use the Right Form
Virginia recognizes one specific form for out-of-hospital DNR orders: the Durable Do Not Resuscitate (DDNR) Order approved by the Board of Health. You can download it from the Virginia Department of Health’s Durable DNR program page, and physicians’ offices, hospitals, and hospice providers keep copies on hand.1Virginia Department of Health. Durable Do Not Resuscitate Program
Skip the generic DNR templates you’ll find online. EMS personnel in Virginia are trained to look for the state’s authorized form, and anything else risks not being honored when it matters. A separate hospital DNR entered in your chart at a particular facility is also not the same document — it applies only inside that hospital and has no force if paramedics come to your home.
Who Can Request the Form
Any patient in Virginia can have a DDNR issued, but the person giving consent depends on the patient’s situation. If you are a competent adult, you consent for yourself. For a minor, the custodial parent, parents, or legal guardian consents. For an adult who cannot make an informed decision, the person legally authorized to act on the patient’s behalf — a healthcare agent named in an advance directive, a court-appointed guardian, or a surrogate decision-maker under Virginia law — can request and consent to the order.2Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 54.1-2987.1 – Durable Do Not Resuscitate Orders
The physician who signs the form must have a genuine physician-patient relationship with you, as defined by the Virginia Board of Medicine. A doctor who has never treated you cannot sign the form at a family member’s request.
Steps to Get a Virginia DDNR
The process is clinical, not legal. Nothing gets filed with a court or a government agency.
Talk to Your Physician
Bring up the DDNR at a regular office visit or ask to schedule a conversation about it. Your doctor will discuss your condition, prognosis, and what resuscitation would and wouldn’t do in your situation. If you’re on Medicare, this conversation is covered as advance care planning. During your annual wellness visit, Medicare Part B pays for it with no copay, deductible, or coinsurance when the provider accepts assignment. Outside a wellness visit, the standard Part B deductible and 20% coinsurance apply.3Medicare.gov. Advance Care Planning Coverage
Complete and Sign the Form
The signed DDNR must include the physician’s do-not-resuscitate determination, the physician’s signature, the date, and the signature of the patient or the person authorized to consent for the patient.4Virginia Code Commission. 12VAC5-66-40 – The Durable Do Not Resuscitate Order Form There is no notarization requirement, and no additional witnesses are needed beyond those signatures.
Distribute Copies
Once the form is signed, get copies to everyone who might need it: your primary care office, any specialists, the facility where you live if applicable, close family members, and your healthcare agent if you have one. Keep the original with you or in a visible, easily accessible place at home. A DDNR filed in a drawer somewhere is a common point of failure.
Make Sure EMS Can Find It
If paramedics arrive and no valid DDNR is visible, they will begin resuscitation. That’s their legal obligation — a family member telling them a DNR “exists somewhere” does not change it. The signed form has to be physically present.
Virginia addresses this with authorized DDNR bracelets and necklaces issued through vendors approved by the Office of Emergency Medical Services.5Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Administrative Code 12VAC5-66 – Regulations Governing Durable Do Not Resuscitate Orders EMS treats approved DDNR jewelry as legally equivalent to the paper form itself. To order it, you submit Copy 3 of your signed DDNR to an approved vendor. As of late 2025, the approved vendor is StickyJ Medical ID, with prices starting at $25.6Virginia Department of Health. How to Purchase Durable Do Not Resuscitate Bracelets and Necklaces If you leave home often, the jewelry solves the accessibility problem in a way a folder of papers cannot.
What the Order Does and Doesn’t Cover
A DDNR applies only if your heart stops or you stop breathing. It tells responders to withhold chest compressions, defibrillation, artificial ventilation, cardiac medications, and related resuscitation measures.7Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 54.1-2982 – Definitions Everything else continues: pain medication, comfort care, IV fluids, oxygen, antibiotics, and any other treatment you and your doctors decide is appropriate. Virginia’s statute specifically protects comfort care and pain management, even at doses above standard recommendations when needed to relieve suffering.
The DDNR is also not an advance directive. Virginia law is explicit that the two are separate documents.8Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code – Chapter 29, Article 8 – Health Care Decisions Act An advance directive covers a broad range of future medical decisions and lets you name a healthcare agent. A DDNR speaks only to cardiac or respiratory arrest. Many people have both, and neither replaces the other.
Changing Your Mind
You can revoke a DDNR at any time by telling a healthcare provider you want to be resuscitated. No paperwork is required. The provider’s authority to follow the order ends the moment you say so.2Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 54.1-2987.1 – Durable Do Not Resuscitate Orders
One point catches families off guard: if you personally consented to your DDNR, only you can revoke it. A spouse, adult child, or healthcare agent cannot override your wish while you can still express it. If the order was issued for a minor or an incapacitated patient with consent from an authorized person, that same authorized person can revoke it. The issuing physician can also rescind the order in accordance with accepted medical practice.4Virginia Code Commission. 12VAC5-66-40 – The Durable Do Not Resuscitate Order Form After any revocation, destroy every copy of the form and any DDNR jewelry, and let providers and family know. If you change your mind again later, a new order can be issued through the same process.