Care After Death: Registered Nurse Verification of Expected Adult Death guidance
Published on: 20 May 2025
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The Care After Death: Registered Nurse Verification of Expected Adult Death (RNVoEAD) Guidance provides a framework for the timely verification of expected adult deaths by experienced registered nurses (who have been assessed as competent).
Contributors include a wide range of senior healthcare professionals.
respecting the dignity, religious and cultural needs of the patient and family members as far as is practicable
ensuring the health and safety of others, e.g. from infectious illness including COVID-19, radioactive implants, and implantable devices.
How to use the guidance
We anticipate that local areas will develop their own policies based on the guidance, but sensitised to the local area, enabling staff to care appropriately for the deceased, supporting and minimising distress for families and carers at any time of the day, night or week. This guidance has been developed in line with the person and family centred care recommendations in national documents.
This guidance may be used to inform training for other registered healthcare professionals who are regulated by a professional body who, under statutory regulation, are recognised by the Professional Standards Authority.
Competency Assessment
A competency assessment tool accompanies this guidance for Registered Nurses (RNs) to demonstrate their practical skills, knowledge and understanding for verifying an expected adult death. RNs already competent in verification of an expected adult death are not expected to repeat the competency assessment, rather to familiarise themselves with the changes within this guidance and adopt the changes into their practice.
Page 3: “Families should be advised that there might be a difference between the time of the last breath and the official time of death” changed to “Families should be advised that there will be a difference between the time of the last breath and the official time of death”.
Page 6: “The RN should know the medical legal responsibilities” changed to “The RN must know the medical legal responsibilities”.
Page 7: definition of the Coroner added in.
Page 9: note referring to minimising contamination removed.
Page 9: new box added to procedure to rule our suspicious circumstances.
20 December 2024
6.1
Removed from page 5: “The death can be verified even if the doctor has not seen the patient in the previous 28 days.”
15 October 2024
6.1
Legislation has changed, September 2024. A medical practitioner is no longer required to have seen the deceased within 28 days.
2 April 2024
6.0
References to COVID all removed.
Role of the Medical Examiner added in (applicable from April 2024).
Paragraph on Non Invasive Ventilation added in.
18 April 2023
5.1
Page 10; Motor / Cerebral Response
After five minutes of continued cardio-respiratory arrest, test for the absence of motor response with the trapezius squeeze or the absence of cerebral activity with supra orbital pressure, which is considered best practice.
To ensure there are no signs of motor or cerebral activity.
