Making a decision of "do no resuscitation" (DNR) is an ethical dilemma commonly encountered in everyday nursing care practices. However, this issue has never been fully explored in an intensive care setting. Therefore, we conducted this cross-sectional descriptive study with an aim to identify the attitude of intensive care nursing staff in making DNR decision, caring for patients with DNR and associated factors. The study population was selected from a single medical center in northern Taiwan via purposeful sampling and questionnaires consisting of general background survey, scale on taking patient with DNR and ethical dilemma delivered to each study object. The study enrolled 385 nursing staffs with an average age of 33.81 years. The average clinical practice period was 159.52 months and most of them were clinically rank as N2 (64.9%). The results showed that the difference in attitude on DNR and taking patients with DNR were associated with clinical field and different clinical practice periods. Participants with a younger age and a lower clinical rank had better attitude toward issues associated with DNR. Frequency in encountering ethical dilemma and suffering from the issuance of DNR increased in younger age group. Results of this study help us to understand the general attitude on DNR, the care of DNR patients among intensive care nursing staff and factors associated with the issue. We wish that the result could be applied in the establishing of standardized practice guideline which would promote the quality of care for DNR patients in the future.