What do you do when a patient dies?

[wandwaving]

Any help?

[brownbook]

I love short concise posts. But I need a little more information.

Do you mean who can officially pronounce the patient is dead? For example in some facilities a nurse can simply call the doctor and take a verbal order that the patient is declared dead.

Or do you mean does the patient get cleaned and who places them in the body bag?

Or do you mean who notifies the family?

Or do you mean who calls the mortician?

[wandwaving]

Yeah who officially pronounces them dead? Is it the doctor? Or the nurse? Does the nurse have to call the doctor?

Who notifies the family also and the mortician? Is it the nurse?

[bluegeegoo2, LPN]

An RN must pronounce time of death. (In Texas and Indiana, anyway.) An LPN can call the doctor for orders to release the body to "ABC funeral home" and dispose of meds per facility protocol. In Indiana, we must also call the coroner to get a verbal consent to release the body, and fill out the death cert.

If you're lucky, a supervisor will call and notify family. If not, we call.

There should be a policy/procedure book available that clearly outlines protocols for death should the need arise. If you can't find it, ask for it.