SCHOOL OF POST BASIC NURSING

LAGOS UNIVERSITY TEACHING HOSPITAL

IDI-ARABA, LAGOS STATE

ETHICO-LEGAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF A NURSE ON

CARE OF DECEASED / BELONGINGS

PRESENTED

BY

GROUP (7) SEVEN

2022/2023
INTRODUCTION

According to British Journal of Nursing, Nurses encounter the death of patients as part of their

role. Patients continue find it difficult to discuss their wishes for the disposal of their remains and

seldom understand the legal framework that regulates what happens to their bodies after death.

Nurses are well placed to ensure that patients and their relatives are properly informed about how

to ensure that arrangements for the disposal of the body comply with the wishes of the patient.

Triad of Bichat (Griffith and Tengnah, 2008)

Defines death as the failure of the body as an integrated system associated with the irreversible

loss of circulation, respiration and innervation.

“According to Lord Lane at 429” in law a person is dead when a doctor says so. Such a system

requires checks and balances in place to prevent wrongdoing. Therefore, there is a duty on the

registered medical practitioner attending the patient during his or her last illness to issue a

medical certificate of cause of death called an MCCD (Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953s

22(1)). If the doctor cannot issue or fully completer the requirements of this certificate the matter

will be referred to the coroner.

DEFINITION OF DYING

Dying is an individual experience and each person dies in their own way and time (ELNEN,

2010)

Dying is a process in which it involves the resation of physical, psychological, social and

spiritual life here on earth.

Patient who know that they are dying will usually make their wishes known about where they

want to spend their final days and hours. It is vital that the nurse involved in patient’s care,

advocate for the patient’s wishes at end of life.

The nurse is to support the patient and family by educating them on what they might expect to

happen during this time. Addressing their questions and concerns honestly, being an active

listener and providing emotional support and guidance.

ELNEC (2010) explain two major topical roads to death which are the usual road and difficult

road. The usual road is the best we caN hope for when caring for persons at the end Of life, while

the difficult road is when a patient or someone is restlessness and confusion that often progresses

to unpleasant hallucinations and delirium. During the difficult road patient experiences Pain,

Dyspnea, Fatigue, Cough, Bowel changes, Incontinence, Depression and Seizures.

TRANSITIONING is a term used by clinicians to describe the period of time in between the

actively dying phase and the imminent phase. During active phase the patient begins to withdraw

from the physical world around them in preparation for their final journey while the imminent

phase is when the body process begin shutting down, multi-system organ failure often occurs and

will result in some typical symptoms as listed above.

Death can be further categorized into two ways which are clinical death and biological death.

 The clinical death comes first when the persons heart stop beating.

 The biological death can be referred to as 4 – 6 minutes window in which patient can be

revived with CPR but without CPR it approximately 4 – 6 minutes after clinical death,

brain cells will begin to die fromlack of oxygen.

LAST OFFICE OF A DYING BODY

The last offices or laying out is the procedures performed usually by a nurse to the body of a

dead person shortly after death has been confirmed. It can very between hospitals and cultures.

THE PURPOSE OF LAST OFFICES OF A DYING BODY.

The last office is the care given to a deceased patient which demonstrates respect for the dead

and is focused on fulfilling religious and cultural beliefs as well as health and safety legal

requirements.

1. Before carrying out last office, nurses should ensure that they wear correct personal

protective equipment (PPE) and use effective hand hygiene techniques.

2. To prevent discoloration or deformity of the body

3. To protect the body from post mortem discharge

4. To prepare the body for morgue.

PROCEDURE OF LAST OFFICES OF A DYING BODY

- The patient is laid on his/her back with arms by their side, eyelids are closed, the jaw is

often supported with a pillow or cervical collor, dentures should be left in place unless

inappropriate.

- Nurses can do this by talking to the patient when providing personal care as if they were

still alive, ensuring that they were being informed about what they were going to do and

why.

- Nurses should also inform patients families about what is going on and where possible

allow them to have an input as some loves ones may.

NURSES DUTY WHEN PATIENT DIES/BELONGINGS

- Prepare him/her for family viewing

- Arranging transportation to the morgue or funeral home

- Comfort and support his family and friends and ensure privacy.

- Ensure the cleaners clean and disinfect the environment.

- Determining the dispositions of his belongings by using patient belongs checklist.

- Documentation of patient properties and valuables is the responsibility of the admission

nurse.

- Solutions for tracking patients belongings reduce to the minimum manual tasks and with

it human errors.

UNDERSTANDING & MATCHING LEGAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Legal responsibilities make the nurse to be essentially prevent him/her fromlegal implications

which may arise.

Nursing care doesn’t end at death, after death the nurse is responsible for preparing the body for

morgue, prebemting discoloration and handing patients belongs to family while maintain

Nursing ethics such as;

1. CONFIDENTIALITY: The nurse is responsible for ensuring that patient privacy is

maintained even after death.

2. NON MALEFICIENT: The patient body must be safe and free from harm. No harm must

be done on the dead body.

 3. AUTONOMY: This involves respecting the patient wishes even after death such as

implementing the living will e.g when patient request for all his organs to be donated

when he dies, when patient request that their bo should not be kept in the morgue and

support the famil during the grieving time.

CONCLUSION

By having a working knowledge of the law relating to death and the body as properly. Nurses are

in a position to emperor patients and relatives to man property for their death b providing

information about the methods of disposal and how best to have patient’s wishes headed.

REFERENCES

- British Journal of Nursing

- Triad of Bichat (Griffith and Tengnah, 2008).

- Lord Lane at (429)

- ELNEC (2010).