Post Mortem Care for other faiths

[Faeriewand, ASN, RN]

I've Googled this many times and went to Wikipedia and can't find any answers. Where can I learn about post-mortem care for patients of other religions?

Was this in my Saunders 3rd ed review for NCLEX-PN and I just forgot? I can't find it in there!

I've done post-mortem care just a few times before but is there something different you do to respect other religions? i.e. Jewish, Islam, Buddist. Where can I read up on it?

Thanks for any info you can give :)

[RN1982]

I've Googled this many times and went to Wikipedia and can't find any answers. Where can I learn about post-mortem care for patients of other religions?

Was this in my Saunders 3rd ed review for NCLEX-PN and I just forgot? I can't find it in there!

I've done post-mortem care just a few times before but is there something different you do to respect other religions? i.e. Jewish, Islam, Buddist. Where can I read up on it?

Thanks for any info you can give :)

I think for Islam, there is a ritual cleansing of the body.

[Sarah Bellum]

Try Googling a particular faith and "post mortem care". I came up with many hits for couple that I tried. We had an interesting inservice on caring for Muslim patients and post mortem care was one of the topics that came up.

[Faeriewand, ASN, RN]

Try Googling a particular faith and "post mortem care". I came up with many hits for couple that I tried. We had an interesting inservice on caring for Muslim patients and post mortem care was one of the topics that came up.

Oh wow that totally helps! I just kept googling post mortem care LOL!

[Faeriewand, ASN, RN]

HA HA I just found my own post on GOOGLE! LOL :chuckle

And it is the first thing on Google too! Sheesh!

[birdgardner]

Our culture and health book had an anecdote about a Haredi (ultra-orthodox) Jewish boy who died and the female nurses washed the body. The boy's father believed his son had been contaminated and violated and rubbed the body with dirt.

Here is a Wikipedia link - it mentions Jewish burial societies who prepare the dead and presumably a hospital with many Orthodox patients would know to call one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bereavement_in_Judaism

[Faeriewand, ASN, RN]

Yes I've read that female bodies are attended by women and male bodies are attended by men-for Jewish Orthodox

[RheatherN, ASN, RN, EMT-P]

it may help to find some books on culture instead of the exact wording you were looking for.

gl

-H-

[Faeriewand, ASN, RN]

I've found some great information at the University of Virginia. It has all the religions as realated to the Health Care Worker :)

[Blee O'Myacin, BSN, RN]

I think it's great that you are interested in the way that different faiths take care of their dead. However, you are not expected to perform these rituals by your facility or by the family of the deceased. I ask the family if there is anything that I can do to help.

People who have different cultural and religious backgrounds than the majority (speaking from experience here, since I am not in any majority faith), do not expect others to be familiar with some practices and will be very forthcoming with what they need. (ie - no autopsy on an orthodox jewish person).

Asking a patient's family if there is anything that you can do to respect their faith and culture goes a long way.

Knowing quite a few Haredi Jews on a familial level, I am hard pressed to believe that the father believed the nurse was rubbing dirt on the patient because of religious differences. Can you point me in the direction of where you read that? So many of those "cultural" textbooks do more harm than good by spreading stereotypes.

Blee

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

Saunders had a section on this, and actually, some of this can be found in a Fundamentals of Nursing textbook. I remember Saunders having it, because during my review course, the instructors told us that they had many reports on NCLEX questions coming up about this. I do remember reading that no sharps or scissors can be around a Jewish body, no washing it (I think).

[suzanne4, RN]

Always check specifically with the family that is involved. Just because someone is of a particular faith, it does not mean that everything that you have read will apply to them.

It also depends if the person is orthodox or reformed in any religion as well.

Most patients are not bathed when they have expired in the first place, this is not something that is routinely done with post-mortem care in any facility that I have ever worked in. They are made presentable for the family, but a full cleansing is not done and that is where issues may come with any family. If the person is getting a bath on a daily basis as they should be, the care should be minimal and also has bearing if the patient is going to be a coroner's case as well.

Most preparation, religious and otherwise, will be done by the funeral home that the family has selected.

And in the orthodox Jewish religion, plus the ultra-orthodox sects, the patient is usually not left alone without a family member with them at all times until they are removed and taken to the funeral home, even if they need to go to the morgue first.

Again, always check with the family before doing anything, and then there will not be any issues ever coming up.