Mortician Job Description

Morticians are often involved in planning and directing funerals.

Morticians provide an important service to grieving families by overseeing funeral rituals and preparing the body of the deceased for a final viewing. Morticians, or undertakers, are also often involved in planning and directing funerals and performing cremations.

Embalming

Morticians are responsible for preparing the body of a decedent for viewing through the process of embalming. Embalming involves removing all of the blood in the body and replacing it with a preservative solution that returns color to the skin and greatly slows decomposition.

Funeral Directing

In many funeral homes, the mortician is also the person who directs the funeral service. This means helping the family to choose appropriate hymns and passages or eulogies, choosing flowers and assisting with transportation for the both the family and the body to the burial site, where indicated.

Cremation

Although not all funeral homes have cremation equipment on-site, the vast majority offer it as an option for the disposition of human remains, even if the body must be sent off-site to another facility. During cremation, the mortician places the body inside of an industrial-grade incinerator at a specific temperature and monitors the process until the remains are reduced to ash.

Considerations

In order to become a mortician, one must be both compassionate and sensitive to the needs and feelings of grieving families, yet not squeamish. Dealing with human remains includes the performance of many tasks that most would consider distasteful, such as draining blood from a body or sewing a decedent's mouth shut.

Education

The required education for morticians is controlled by individual states and localities, and many embalmers learn the craft through an apprenticeship rather than formal schooling. However, mortuary colleges offer two- and four-year degrees in embalming that include training in anatomy, embalming, psychology, reconstructive techniques for bodies, and safe handling of both chemicals used on the job and biohazardous materials.

Resources

• MortuarySchools.com: Guide to Mortuary College and Training Programs