How to care for a patient after death in hospital
Intended for healthcare professionals
Art & Science Previous     Next

How to care for a patient after death in hospital

Kathleen Greenway Senior lecturer in adult nursing, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England
Paula Johnson Senior lecturer in adult nursing, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, England

Rationale and key points

This article provides nurses with information about how to care for a patient after death and support their family in the hospital setting.

Care after death involves supporting the family and significant others, and providing personal care to the patient.

Staff undertaking care after death should be offered appropriate support.

Local and national guidelines should be followed.

Reflective activity

Clinical skills articles can help update your practice and ensure it remains evidence based. Apply this article to your practice. Reflect on and write a short account of:

How you think this article will change your practice.

How this article could help you to consider the support mechanisms in your practice setting for the provision of care after death.

Subscribers can upload their reflective accounts at: rcni.com/portfolio.

Nursing Standard. 30, 33, 36-39. doi: 10.7748/ns.30.33.36.s43

Correspondence

kgreenway@brookes.ac.uk

Peer review

All articles are subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software.

Received: 26 January 2016

Accepted: 16 February 2016

Want to read more?

RCNi-Plus
Already have access? Log in

or

3-month trial offer for £5.25/month

Subscribe today and save 50% on your first three months
RCNi Plus users have full access to the following benefits:
  • Unlimited access to all 10 RCNi Journals
  • RCNi Learning featuring over 175 modules to easily earn CPD time
  • NMC-compliant RCNi Revalidation Portfolio to stay on track with your progress
  • Personalised newsletters tailored to your interests
  • A customisable dashboard with over 200 topics
Subscribe

Alternatively, you can purchase access to this article for the next seven days. Buy now


Are you a student? Our student subscription has content especially for you.
Find out more