Embalmers are professionals who prepare deceased bodies for funerals. They embalm and preserve the body, ensuring a more natural appearance for viewings and services. They may also perform cosmetic and restorative procedures. Additionally, embalmers provide support and guidance to grieving families throughout the funeral process.

 

 

 

  • Dress bodies and place them in caskets.
  • Conform to laws of health and sanitation and ensure that legal requirements concerning embalming are met.
  • Close incisions, using needles and sutures.
  • Attach trocar to pump-tube, start pump, and repeat probing to force embalming fluid into organs.
  • Wash and dry bodies, using germicidal soap and towels or hot air dryers.
  • Incise stomach and abdominal walls and probe internal organs, using trocar, to withdraw blood and waste matter from organs.
  • Join lips, using needles and thread or wire.
  • Reshape or reconstruct disfigured or maimed bodies when necessary, using dermasurgery techniques and materials such as clay, cotton, plaster of Paris, and wax.
  • Pack body orifices with cotton saturated with embalming fluid to prevent escape of gases or waste matter.
  • Make incisions in arms or thighs and drain blood from circulatory system and replace it with embalming fluid, using pump.
  • Maintain records, such as itemized lists of clothing or valuables delivered with body and names of persons embalmed.
  • Apply cosmetics to impart lifelike appearance to the deceased.
  • Remove the deceased from place of death and transport to funeral home.
  • Insert convex celluloid or cotton between eyeballs and eyelids to prevent slipping and sinking of eyelids.
  • Perform the duties of funeral directors, including coordinating funeral activities.
  • Assist with placing caskets in hearses and organize cemetery processions.
  • Serve as pallbearers, attend visiting rooms, and provide other assistance to the bereaved.
  • Conduct interviews to arrange for the preparation of obituary notices, to assist with the selection of caskets or urns, and to determine the location and time of burials or cremations.
  • Arrange funeral home equipment and perform general maintenance.
  • Perform special procedures necessary for remains that are to be transported to other states or overseas, or where death was caused by infectious disease.
  • Arrange for transporting the deceased to another state for interment.
  • Direct casket and floral display placement and arrange guest seating.
  • Supervise funeral attendants and other funeral home staff.
  • Press diaphragm to evacuate air from lungs.
  • Assist coroners at death scenes or at autopsies, file police reports, and testify at inquests or in court, if employed by a coroner.
Work Context
  • Contact With Others — 93% responded "Constant contact with others".
  • Frequency of Decision Making — 86% responded "Every day".
  • Telephone — 82% responded "Every day".
  • Importance of Being Exact or Accurate — 70% responded "Extremely important".
  • Impact of Decisions on Co-workers or Company Results — 64% responded "Very important results".
  • Freedom to Make Decisions — 61% responded "A lot of freedom".
  • Indoors, Environmentally Controlled — 85% responded "Every day".
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Work Activities
  • Making Decisions and Solving Problems — Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems.
  • Handling and Moving Objects — Using hands and arms in handling, installing, positioning, and moving materials, and manipulating things.
  • Assisting and Caring for Others — Providing personal assistance, medical attention, emotional support, or other personal care to others such as coworkers, customers, or patients.
  • Getting Information — Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
  • Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge — Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job.
  • Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships — Developing constructive and cooperative working relationships with others, and maintaining them over time.
  • Performing General Physical Activities — Performing physical activities that require considerable use of your arms and legs and moving your whole body, such as climbing, lifting, balancing, walking, stooping, and handling of materials.
  • Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards — Using relevant information and individual judgment to determine whether events or processes comply with laws, regulations, or standards.
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Detailed Work Activities
  • Apply makeup to alter or enhance appearance.
  • Embalm corpses.
  • Embalm corpses.
  • Embalm corpses.
  • Embalm corpses.
  • Direct funeral or mortuary activities.
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Knowledge

Customer and Personal Service
  • Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
English Language
  • Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
Chemistry
  • Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
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Skills

Speaking
  • Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Active Listening
  • Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
Critical Thinking
  • Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
Judgment and Decision Making
  • Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
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Abilities

Problem Sensitivity
  • The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
Near Vision
  • The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
Oral Comprehension
  • The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Oral Expression
  • The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
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Personality

People interested in this work like activities that include ideas, thinking, and figuring things out.
They do well at jobs that need:
  • Achievement/Effort
  • Persistence
  • Initiative
  • Leadership
  • Cooperation
  • Concern for Others
  • Social Orientation
  • Self Control
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Technology

You might use software like this on the job:

Spreadsheet software
  • Microsoft Excel Hot Technology
Word processing software
  • Microsoft Word Hot Technology
Office suite software
  • Microsoft Office Hot Technology
  • Corel WordPerfect
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