Do cna have to deal with patient once they die?

Nursing Students CNA/MA

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Hi everyone, i was jus wondering what do cna have to do to patients once they die? Or do they have any contact with them at all?

Yes, most places you work, if your resident dies on your shift, you do post mortem care. Essentially you clean them up and get them in a fresh gown, and make sure their bodies are in a natural position before rigor mortis sets in.

It can be sad and hard, but it's not as bad as you think it's going to be.

Post mortem care is a great learning experience for a tech. Doing post mortem care I've been able to practice things like removing sutures, removing staples, and pulling picc lines. At my hospital we pull everything from the PT, clean them up, put a paper gown on them, and put a sticker with their name and medical record number on their foot. Where I work now the funeral home comes and picks them up from the room but when I worked at a bigger hospital the last step used to be bringing them to the morgue, which was a big restaurant style walk in cooler in the basement.

This is very interesting. I'm not trying to speak ill of the dead or anything but it must be pretty cool to practice all of these skills on someone who won't put up a fight or anything. I can't wait until I start working with patients (not just dead ones).

Specializes in Med-Surg/urology.

I guess it depends on where you work. At my facility, when the resident dies, 9 times out of 10 they are on hospice, and they handle post mortem care.

Specializes in LTC/Rehab.

Post mortem care. Clean a lot of poop, and try to make them look presentable for when the ambulance/family members may come.

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