Death notification

Death education is provided for multiple types of jobs to deliver the news efficiently for each situation.

A chaplain, a clergy member who works in hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, armed forces, police, or emergency medical services may alternatively deliver the news.

Medics do not have time to establish a bond with the family and sometimes deliver the news in a formal manner, then try to reassure and relieve them.

The relevant Army manual provides:[citation needed]"The Next of Kin will be notified promptly in an appropriate dignified and understanding manner by a uniformed service representative.

"[6] Death receivers include parents, children, friends, lovers, co-workers, and other incident survivors.

[7] Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) received a grant from the Department of Justice in 1988 to train police officers in death notification.

Police officers have to report more deaths compared to any other occupation, which is why the education provided by MADD is crucial.

Licensed social workers collaborated with health care professionals to create a protocol for notifying the family of the deceased.

This includes having the family view the body and talk with the medical staff in order to answer questions about the situation and discuss the next steps to take.

Since there is a lack of training, this makes breaking the bad news extremely stressful, which then leaves the physicians more susceptible to burnout and becoming dissatisfied with their job performance and duties (Henderson, 2012).

Explaining what happened and being clear with the family is very important when giving a death notification; not using words that are difficult to understand is crucial (Vandekieft, 2001).

The "last" part of the job that the individual notifying survivors completes is to follow up and stay in contact while the family needs support and help in answering any questions about the death.

Giving unfortunate news in person is extremely important (Campbell, 1992), so making sure the families do not find out through social media, a phone call, or any other types of communication is necessary.

Making sure the notification happens in a timely manner (Flaherty, 2005) although this may focus more on military and law enforcement, it is important for the families.

Finally, for the person doing the notification (Vandekieft, 2001) they should allow themselves to be sympathetic of the family's loss, without being overly emotional or appearing to be uncaring.