The RN delegates postmortem care to the nursing assistant for a resident who died an hour ago. The nursing assistant has at least 1 hour of high-priority tasks that must be performed for other residents. What action should the nursing assistant take?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The nursing assistant predicts that waiting until all high-priority tasks are completed would make it 2 hours after death and that by then, rigor mortis will develop, making it difficult to reposition the body and perform postmortem care. The best next action is to discuss the situation with the RN who delegated the task. The RN may choose to perform the postmortem care or delegate it to another nursing assistant who can help with the care. It is not in the scope of the nursing assistant's practice to assign the task to another nursing assistant. If the nursing assistant performs the postmortem care, it would delay high-priority care for residents who may not be able to wait the additional time that postmortem care may take.

The RN Delegates Postmortem Care to the Nursing Assistant for a Resident