Mortician Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

Mortician Job Description, Key Duties and Responsibilities

This post presents complete information on the mortician job description, to help improve your understanding of what they do.

It presents the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities that commonly make the mortician work description.

This post also highlights the typical requirements most employers/recruiters will want you to fulfill if you are applying for the mortician job.

Please, continue reading to increase your knowledge of the mortician career:

What Does a Mortician Do?

A mortician is a professional trained to transport, prepare, dress, embalm and casket deceased people for funerals and interments.

He/she cosmetically dresses, enhances, and caskets deceased people in preparation for their funerals.

A mortician could work in a large morgue or mortuary, and a much smaller morgue, however, their requirements and duties remain same.

They are always on hand to respond to sudden death cases and perform other duties as might be needed in the case of any death.

Morticians are crucial to most operations in a mortuary and could be called upon to meet with families to counsel and discuss funeral arrangements.

In addition, morticians are basically responsible for the embalmment and preparation of bodies for viewing and other services.

So, the job of a mortician goes beyond the four walls of the mortuary and extends to hospitals, independent investigators who carryout autopsy, and families of the deceased people.

He/she is always on hand to share relevant information when needed.

Mortician Job Description Example/Sample/Template

The job description of a mortician commonly consists of the following duties, tasks, and responsibilities:

• Receive prompt notification of deaths and respond immediately. This is done by dispatching pickups to homes, hospitals or other locations where death occurred and pick the body.

About two or more personnel are required to do this.

• Meets with the family of the deceased to comfort them and help make early arrangements of interments or funerals for the deceased.

In this process, the mortician offers a lot of useful advice ranging from what type of casket to be used and the embalmment process.

• Obtain relevant information from the families, hospitals and other medical facilities to complete all necessary legal documents like burial permits and death certificates for each body.
• Take full part in the planning of the funeral of the deceased. This includes hiring of music band, clergy, purchase of flowers, and other necessary arrangements for the funeral.
• Embalm the deceased and ensure that the body stays in good condition through its stay in the mortuary. He/she apply the necessary cosmetics and casketing in preparation for viewing or funeral proper.
• Help in notification of funeral arrangement of the deceased if requested by the family or authorities on the radio, television, and newspaper.
• Schedule interment with the cemetery authorities for the deceased.
• Transport the deceased from the point of death to the mortuary via deployment of ambulance or pickup.
• Transport bodies with flowers to cemeteries for funeral and make all the needed arrangements like setting the casket, flowers, and any displays requested by the families of the deceased.
• Guide and direct all parties in the funeral like the clergies and singers, and direct attendees on how to proceed to cemeteries at the end of services.
• Prepare grave yards for the deceased in the cemeteries or prepare bodies for cremation, and prepare bodies for out-of-state cemeteries.
• Keep check on the deceased until it is taken away from the mortuary for funeral or viewing as requested by the family.

Mortician Job Description for Resume

If you are making a resume for a mortician position and have acquired some experience working in that role, it will be good to include the professional experience section in your resume.

With the professional or work experience section, you will be able to highlight the duties and responsibilities that you have successfully carried out as a mortician in your resume.

This will enable the recruiter/employer to know that you are a highly competent mortician, which will increase your chances of being hired.

You can quickly and easily create a great professional experience section for your resume by using the mortician job description example above.

Mortician Requirements – Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities for a Successful Career

If you are seeking the mortician role with an organization, here are major requirements you may be expected to fulfill:

• Education: To be a high profile mortician, one needs to possess Associate or Bachelor’s degree in mortuary science from a credible program and a background in chemistry in the direction of embalming and burial preparation.

In addition, a top ranking mortician should possess a completed one to three years internship or willingness to do so and a successful completion of a licensing course/exam.

Experience: Two experiences needed for this job are:

• 2+ Years of experience in embalmment
• 2+ Years of cosmetic experience

Knowledge: To work as a mortician, relevant knowledge in embalming process and funeral arrangement is important.

In addition, a mortician should be well trained in the processes involved in transporting, dressing, embalming, and casketing of bodies in preparation for viewing or funeral.

Computer Skills: a good knowledge of Microsoft Suite, especially MS Access will be key in this job in addition to other database applications.

Skills: to work effectively as a mortician will require the skills below:

• Good organizational skills
• Efficient planning skills
• Empathy and sympathy
• Top notch confidentiality
• Time management skills
• Good interpersonal skills
• Excellent communication skills
• Basic technical skills required in the job
• Collaborative skills.

Professionalism: Working as a mortician will require a lot of professionalism on the part of the mortician.

A mortician will need to be emotionally stable to be able to do the job in an excellent way.

Another important thing is that a mortician will need to be highly confidential in his/her job as you may have some reports you may need to give out or conceal, as the case may be.

Conclusion

This post is beneficial to individuals who are interested in becoming a mortician; they will be able to increase their knowledge of the duties that morticians do.

Having this knowledge will help them to make the best decision about pursuing the mortician career or not.

You will also find this post helpful if you are an employer/recruiter needing to make a job description for a mortician position in your organization.

With the sample mortician job description provided on this page, you will be able to create a great one for your organization that will help you to attract the best candidates for the vacant position.