There are three main learning goals for this lecture. They are quite straightforward and move from explaining why the DPR is important through to understanding influences of DPR on care, and from this to predicting problems that can arise in patient care from poor DPRs.

While not every patient you see will require surgery, a MRI scan or even medication, every patient will experience the DPR. It is a foundation of good practice and like the foundation of a building, if it is not right, the rest will not be as good as if ought to be.

Treatment is only useful if it is followed. Pills, no matter how powerful, are useless if they stay in the bottle, and a patient cannot be treated if they do not attend their appointments. It is the DPR that determines these things to a large extent.