Do you bag your bodies naked?

[mama_d]

I had a death the other night, and found out that our new policy to save $ on linens is to bag the bodies naked. I flat out refused.

I know she was dead, so it shouldn't really matter whether she had a gown on or not, but it just seemed indecent to me. There was no way I was putting her into a plastic bag without being covered.

I was just curios if other facilities do this...and does it bother most people or am I just being weird?

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

Clean gown, bath if needed, wrapped in a sheet, and gently moved from the bed to a morgue gurney or funeral home stretcher. :heartbeat They still deserve respect- and someone cared about that person somewhere along the line.

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

No, I don't bag the bodies naked. I always wear scrubs when I do it.

Well thank you for that little tidbit of information

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

So when a patient passes away are the sheets and gowns etc washed and then re used or are they thrown out? It's kind of gross if your a patient and to think that someone could have died in the gown your wearing or the sheets your using... but then again i guess it isn't much different when it comes to sleeping on the beds.... it's not like they're going to throw away the mattress because someone died on it.

The laundry services have requirements to keep the water hot enough to kill most pathogens. And the dead person isn't any different than when they were alive- just the soul gone.... they don't turn toxic :)

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

a nurse has to touch and pick up a dead patient and put it in the body bag? what if its a murder victim?

There are usually forensic protocols- the ED would get most of these.