Post-Mortem Care

[Zee_RN]

Quick question. Do you send the shrouded deceased in a hospital gown?

I have always put a clean hospital gown on the body before wrapping the deceased in that heavy plastic shroud. Never occurred to me not to. At my new job, I was helping a co-worker with post-mortem care and she stripped off the gown and started to wrap the naked, still warm body in the plastic shroud. I was aghast. She said "it's policy -- you send them naked."

Now, I know it's just a body and that the spirit has left, etc. etc. etc. But I just thought it was appalling! Those plastic shrouds are awful enough but I understand the need for them. I just kept thinking, what if this was my mother's body? It seems so disrepectful.

What do you do?

[Speculating]

Originally posted by BarbPick

You would be surprised the ways I receive some of my patients. That cheap morgue kit is a blessing. Really, it is the only way I have seen post mortem care.

We moved to the white travel bags that a person uses to keep their clothing in that need to stay on hangers. They are pretty nice made out of a heavy white plastic. You just slip the body in an zip it up.

[obeyacts2]

My patients aare hospice and dying at home, but this is what we do. After the person goes, we call the on call RN and our agency. While we wait for the RN to show up, we get them ready for the mortician. We clean bathe and dress them.....usually clean PJs for men and gown for ladies. Last female pt left in sexy evening PJs, her facorites, and pink slippers. We lay em flat in alignment, change the bed put clean sheet, preferable white up to the shoulders. After the Rn comes and does her thing, decides the pt is really dead, she calls the mortician and fills out the paperwork. She also gets rid of the narcs that might be on hand. When the mortician arrives, we assist if necessary and wrap the person in a white sheet, like a shroud, then the mortician either puts them in a body bag on just wheels them out to the heorifice.

Laura

[Speculating]

Originally posted by obeyacts2

My patients aare hospice and dying at home, but this is what we do. After the person goes, we call the on call RN and our agency. While we wait for the RN to show up, we get them ready for the mortician. We clean bathe and dress them.....usually clean PJs for men and gown for ladies. Last female pt left in sexy evening PJs, her facorites, and pink slippers. We lay em flat in alignment, change the bed put clean sheet, preferable white up to the shoulders. After the Rn comes and does her thing, decides the pt is really dead, she calls the mortician and fills out the paperwork. She also gets rid of the narcs that might be on hand. When the mortician arrives, we assist if necessary and wrap the person in a white sheet, like a shroud, then the mortician either puts them in a body bag on just wheels them out to the heorifice.

Laura

That's nice very tasteful. I think bathing them may be taking it a step to far. But, that certainly is as ADNRN stated earlier very much so for the family only.

[unikuelady, RN]

I work with still born/neonatal death. I will try my best to clean the infant, place a diaper on and dress in a nice outfit. Yes this is for the family-as this will be the only memory of this child the family will have. I always ask the parents if they would like the clothing removed and given to them before I take the body to the morgue. Some want the baby to be left in the outfit. Most want the clothing to keep. Several mothers have expressed concern about making sure the baby was covered in the morgue. I will usually place a plain t-shirt on the baby and wrap it in a blanket before placing it in the body-bag. Yes this is unnecessary for the morgue/funeral home.....but very necessary for the emotional well being of the family. I say if the facility is going to gripe about the "cost" of a gown...then I will pay for it myself.

PS: The baby blankets and outfits are donated/made by volunteers. Being respectful to the patients body and the families wishes is the final act of being a good nurse IMO.

[Speculating]

Originally posted by unikuelady

I work with still born/neonatal death. I will try my best to clean the infant, place a diaper on and dress in a nice outfit. Yes this is for the family-as this will be the only memory of this child the family will have. I always ask the parents if they would like the clothing removed and given to them before I take the body to the morgue. Some want the baby to be left in the outfit. Most want the clothing to keep. Several mothers have expressed concern about making sure the baby was covered in the morgue. I will usually place a plain t-shirt on the baby and wrap it in a blanket before placing it in the body-bag. Yes this is unnecessary for the morgue/funeral home.....but very necessary for the emotional well being of the family. I say if the facility is going to gripe about the "cost" of a gown...then I will pay for it myself.

PS: The baby blankets and outfits are donated/made by volunteers. Being respectful to the patients body and the families wishes is the final act of being a good nurse IMO.

God love you and I'm not a religious person. You certainly are unique. I'm a pretty tough man and have seen just about every trauma that could injure or cause death to a person. But, there is no way on earth I could do what you do. Thank you for going that extra mile for lost parents.

[nursemary9, BSN, RN]

Hi

At this Hospital and the last I worked at The Policy is just the plastic sheet.Never a Hospital gown.

I never did like this policy, but they are very strict about it--they lose the gowns otherwise and I guess that costs!

[devilish_sprite]

I work in a nursing home. Due to the family members coming to visit a deceased family member. We always put the resident in a gown. I think it helps family and also our own aides. Many of our residents our with us for a very long time, and most of us like to put a gown on for our own sensibilities and the families respect.

I believe it is a respect and dignity issue. I dont think that I would want my body paraded around naked.

I do what I think the person I cared for would want.

[sandyth]

We always put the deceased in a clean gown. Whether its a facility gown or one of their own. Its the decent thing to do.

[Gompers, BSN, RN]

I think bathing them may be taking it a step to far.

I thought that it was standard procedure for all expired patients to be bathed before being shrouded for the morgue? That's at least what I was taught in school and as a CNA in adult care.

Nowadays, I work NICU. Naturally, in neo and peds, things are quite different. We do strange things like take lots of pictures of children with their families after death, dress them in pretty gowns, and have private rooms where the entire family can spend as long as they want with the children.

Especially in NICU, sometimes these parents have never seen their babies' faces without tape and tubes, and have often never even held them due to such serious illness. We bathe the babies with baby soap and warm water, with the overhead warmer on high, so that we can give the parents a warm, sweet smelling child to hold. We dress them in baby clothes and blankets for this. Afterwards, we remove these items and give them to the parents in a memory box, along with pictures, hair, footprints, etc. We always leave the baby in a clean diaper, and then wrap with a hospital blanket before putting into the body bag. I'm sure the hospital doesn't appreciate losing a baby blanket to the funeral home, but it's very therapeutic for us as nurses to swaddle the baby. It makes us feel like we're making them comfortable and that they won't get too cold in the morgue. Silly, maybe. But we'll never stop doing it.

[kyti]

We always put on a clean gown. I don't know if this is our policy or not. I really don't care. It's what I would want for myself or my family.

[Zee_RN, BSN, RN]

Thank you for your affirmations. I will continue to send the deceased in a gown.

My father died just a few months before I started nursing school. I was very nervous about post-mortem care because I was afraid of what it would show me about how my father's body had been handled. I asked my teacher to give me the first post-mortem care that came up so I could get over that hurdle. And I got it. The nurses that I worked with so wonderful. The deceased man was gently cared for, washed, tubes removed, dressed in a gown and wrapped. It provided such a comfort to my soul to think that someone had cared for my father's body in much the same way, with dignity and respect and gentle sadness.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Depends on where the person is going as to what they are dressed in.

To the morgue, then the funeral home: paper gown, no tubes, but the central line stays in place.

To the morgue, then to a medical school: no tubes, no gown, just the body bag.

To the morgue, then for autopsy: all tubes stay in place, no gown, just body bag.