This article provides nurses with information about how to care for a patient after death, and support their family and loved ones in the community setting.
Care after death involves supporting the family and significant others, and providing personal care to the patient.
It is important to ensure privacy, dignity and respect of the deceased and to recognise this is a sensitive and difficult time for families.
Staff undertaking care after death should be offered support.
Local and national guidelines should be followed.
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 reading this article will change your practice.
How this article could help you to consider the support mechanisms in place for the provision of care after death in the community setting.
Subscribers can upload their reflective accounts at:
Nursing Standard. 30, 37, 34-36. doi: 10.7748/ns.30.37.34.s39
Correspondence Peer reviewAll articles are subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software
Received: 12 February 2016
Accepted: 26 February 2016
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