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What They Do
About This Career
Prepares bodies for interment in conformity with legal requirements.
This career is part of the Human Services cluster Personal Care Services pathway.
A person in this career:
- Conforms to laws of health and sanitation and ensures that legal requirements concerning embalming are met.
- Applies cosmetics to impart lifelike appearance to the deceased.
- Joins lips, using needles and thread or wire.
- Incises stomach and abdominal walls and probes internal organs, using trocar, to withdraw blood and waste matter from organs.
- Closes incisions, using needles and sutures.
- Cleans and disinfects areas in which bodies are prepared and embalmed.
- Dresses bodies and places them in caskets.
- Makes incisions in arms or thighs and drains blood from circulatory system and replaces it with embalming fluid, using pump.
- Removes the deceased from place of death and transports to funeral home.
- Performs the duties of funeral directors, including coordinating funeral activities.
Working Conditions and Physical Demands
People who do this job report that:
- You would often handle loads up to 50 lbs., sometimes up to 100 lbs. You will need a lot of strength at this level.
- Work in this occupation involves use of protective items such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, a hard hat, or personal flotation devices
- Exposure to pollutants, gases, dust, fumes, odors, poor ventilation, etc.
- Exposed to disease and infections more than once a month through work such as patient care, laboratory work, and sanitation control
- Work in this occupation involves using your hands to hold, control, and feel objects more than one-third of the time
- Exposed to conditions such as high voltage electricity, combustibles, explosives, and chemicals more than once a month
- Work in this occupation requires being inside most of the time
- Work in this occupation requires being outside most of the time
Working in this career involves (physical activities):
- Identifying color and seeing differences in color, including shades and brightness
- Seeing clearly up close
- Speaking clearly enough to be able to be understood by others
- Identifying and understanding the speech of another person
- Using abdominal and lower back muscles repeatedly or over time without tiring
Work Hours and Travel
- Irregular hours
- Weekend work
Specialty and Similar Careers
Careers that are more detailed or close to this career:
- Trade Embalmer
- Licensed Embalmer
Every year the U.S. Department of Labor conducts national surveys of wage data by occupation in every state and in all industry divisions. These surveys are conducted through the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program.
The statistics collected for one year are published the next fall. For example, 2013 wage information was published in the fall of 2014.
There are over 800 occupations in the surveys, and these occupations cover the entire U.S. labor market. The surveys ask for reports in a scale of ranges for both hourly wages and annual wages.
In many cases, these occupations are broad enough to cover many more detailed specialties of an occupation. A specific occupation may be included in a broader occupational category for which labor market data is available. When you look at the statistics for a broad category, be aware that the salary data for a specific career may differ.
For more details about how wage information is collected and calculated by the U.S. Department of Labor, visit their website at http://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm.
Every year the U.S. Department of Labor conducts a national survey of over 400,000
employers in every state and in all industry divisions. This survey is conducted
through the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program. Every other year the
department publishes outlook information based on these surveys.
Each outlook period covers 10 years. For example, in 2003 the outlook information
was published for 2004-2014. Employers are asked to report the number of employees
in about 770 different occupations that cover the entire U.S. labor market.
From this information, staffing patterns for different industries are established.
Industry growth is projected into the future based on past trends and current economic
conditions. Industry staffing patterns are then applied to the industry projections
to obtain occupational projections.
In many cases, these occupations are broad enough to cover many more detailed specialties
of an occupation. A specific occupation may be included in a broader occupational
category for which labor market data is available. When you look at the statistics
for a broad category, be aware that the employment data for a specific field may
differ.
For more details about how employment information is collected and calculated by
the U.S. Department of Labor, visit their website at http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.
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