Press release
6 April 2011
New care after death advice for health and social care staff
Guidance out today highlights the wide-ranging and sensitive care it is helpful that nurses and their colleagues undertake when an adult dies.
Guidance for staff responsible for care after death (last offices) emphasises that the care extends well beyond physically preparing the body for transfer either to the mortuary or funeral director.
The care includes:
- Ensuring that the deceased and their family/carers have their privacy and dignity respected at all times
- Honouring the spiritual and cultural wishes of the deceased person and their family/carers
- Honouring people’s wishes for organ and tissue donation
- Ensuring the health and safety of everyone who comes into contact with the body
- Ensuring that if the death is being referred to the coroner no action is taken which might impede establishing the cause of death
- Ensuring correct certification procedures have been followed
- Care after death can be made less stressful by discussions while the patient is still alive around issues such as organ donation and cultural attitudes towards death.
The work was initiated by the National Palliative Care Nurse Consultants Group and undertaken in partnership with the National End of Life Care Programme (NEoLCP). It has been endorsed by the Royal College of Nursing and the Royal College of Pathologists. All organisations identified as being involved in the pathways of care of the deceased have contributed to the development of the guidance.
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