body removal...

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How is a body removed from your unit? Is it removed on a special gurney designed to conceal the body from other pt/residents?, or is the body placed on the gurney with a sheet over it?

On my unit, which is LTC we use a regular stretcher and cover the body with a sheet and I'm having a problem with this. I feel that the other residents shouldn't have to view this and think a special gurney for body removal would be more appropriate in this type of setting.

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Hi. I work in an acute care setting and we use a gurney that hides the body. But I've also worked in a LTC facility where they used a stretcher and a sheet over the body, but all the residents were brought to their rooms and the doors closed, as long as they weren't a safety risk, of course, while the body was wheeled to the elevators. Hope this helps a little!

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We use the gurney that the funeral home brings. Usually the bodies are not taken to the morgue, they just stay in the bed where they died. The funeral homes are pretty quick about getting there to retrieve the body. About the only two times we take a body to the morgue is when there will an autopsy, or if the funeral home is coming from a significant distance and will be several hours until they can get the body. In those cases we have an old surgcial gurney we use to transport the body to the morgue. We just cover the body with a sheet.

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Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

In our hospital , we used the special cart. It had 4 aluminum posts that held a frame above the body. That was covered by a black vinyl cover and that covered by a sheet. The room doors were closed.

I think everyone already knew when we had a death though. The code would be announced and everyone would have been pretty busy earlier.

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The funeral home comes with their gurney and zips it up in there black bag. The residents brought up in council that they didn't like to see the bodies go through so their doors are to be closed before taking it out.

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When we have a death in the ER we get a special cart from the morgue as was already described. It has the high railings with a special cover that hides the body. We make sure everyone is in their treatment rooms and pull curtains and shut doors.

They usally know anyway but at least they don't see the body on it's way to the morgue.

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we drag them down the hall yelling....let this be a lesson to you...

we use the same thing PRN described. security brings it.

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"we drag them down the hall yelling....let this be a lesson to you... "

thisnurse,

I just read your post in another thread (your incontinent pts), and was cracking up then read this and really lost it. Almost peed my pants!

We use the "morgue stretcher" like PRN described also.

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Lol! But, thinking on,... Why do we in the Western culture deny the reality of death's existence? Why do the other patients not want even to see the trolley on which they know that one of their number is leaving? In a supposedly Christian culture, should we not be happy for those who have gone before us? My philosophical attack is passing now....

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I too know this is a serious subject and to answer the question - bodies are taken to the morgue on a regular er cart with a sheet over them. The babies, we usually just carry. The bloody trauma patients we put into a big ziploc bag to prevent leaks.

But...this is my favorite part. We had some new techs last summer and they had to take a pt to the morgue which is quite a ways from the ER. There was construction going on, so they took the patient through the doctors conference room (holding 300 MDs having a meeting) right down the middle aisle, in front of the speaker and out the other door. (We were just rolling on the floors!!) Of course administration wrote up a letter and distributed it throughout the hospital saying we could not take bodies through the MDs conference room anymore. The other option, which I found out a tech used was to go outside the building, push the cart up the hill through the Hardees parking lot to the other building. I still think this is pretty funny too.

Maybe you have to be an ER nurse to appreciate this humor...sorry. judi

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We

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LOL Thisnurse!!! That was great!

And DonMurray, I agree with you. As a matter of fact, I had just been thinking that the people in the hospital HAVE to know what that special gurney is holding.

Are we supposed to pretend that nobody ever dies?

Love

Dennie

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