Death notification: practical guidelines for health care professionals

In acute care settings, death is common. Until now, few explicit guidelines for locating and notifying next of kin have been available. A licensed clinical social worker, in collaboration with two universities, surveyed medical professionals, university students in death and dying classes, and family members of newly admitted intensive care unit patients. From these responses, a working protocol for notifying and supporting the bereaved was developed. The general guidelines resulting from this study were applied and refined during the author's facilitation of more than 2,000 unanticipated death scenarios. Having the family view the body and talk with the medical staff is part of this protocol.