Skip to content

← Occupation guides

39-4011.00 · Task explorer

Embalmers: reported tasks and exploration worksheet

Prepare bodies for interment in conformity with legal requirements.

Use the skill profile to plan your next practice →

Read the task inventory

This source lists 26 tasks, including 24 marked Core and 2 marked Supplemental. Labels and dates are retained below. Employers can combine or divide these responsibilities differently; explore the task itself before assuming it belongs in every version of the role.

Task source dates: 08/2021.

Find a task in this inventory

26 tasks shown

Core · Task 4487 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Conform to laws of health and sanitation and ensure that legal requirements concerning embalming are met.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4488 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Apply cosmetics to impart lifelike appearance to the deceased.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4495 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Join lips, using needles and thread or wire.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4490 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Close incisions, using needles and sutures.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4489 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Incise stomach and abdominal walls and probe internal organs, using trocar, to withdraw blood and waste matter from organs.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 23930 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Clean and disinfect areas in which bodies are prepared and embalmed.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4493 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Dress bodies and place them in caskets.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4492 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Make incisions in arms or thighs and drain blood from circulatory system and replace it with embalming fluid, using pump.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 20257 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Remove the deceased from place of death and transport to funeral home.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4494 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Perform the duties of funeral directors, including coordinating funeral activities.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4497 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Attach trocar to pump-tube, start pump, and repeat probing to force embalming fluid into organs.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4491 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Reshape or reconstruct disfigured or maimed bodies when necessary, using dermasurgery techniques and materials such as clay, cotton, plaster of Paris, and wax.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4504 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Pack body orifices with cotton saturated with embalming fluid to prevent escape of gases or waste matter.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4496 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

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.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4500 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Insert convex celluloid or cotton between eyeballs and eyelids to prevent slipping and sinking of eyelids.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4505 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Assist with placing caskets in hearses and organize cemetery processions.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4499 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Maintain records, such as itemized lists of clothing or valuables delivered with body and names of persons embalmed.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4501 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Wash and dry bodies, using germicidal soap and towels or hot air dryers.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4502 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Arrange for transporting the deceased to another state for interment.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4498 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Perform special procedures necessary for remains that are to be transported to other states or overseas, or where death was caused by infectious disease.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4503 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Supervise funeral attendants and other funeral home staff.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4506 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Serve as pallbearers, attend visiting rooms, and provide other assistance to the bereaved.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4507 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Direct casket and floral display placement and arrange guest seating.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Core · Task 4508 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Arrange funeral home equipment and perform general maintenance.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Supplemental · Task 4509 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Assist coroners at death scenes or at autopsies, file police reports, and testify at inquests or in court, if employed by a coroner.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Supplemental · Task 4510 · 08/2021 · Incumbent

Press diaphragm to evacuate air from lungs.

Add to my exploration shortlist

My example, evidence or question

Make the shortlist useful

Choose one to three activities that tell you something different about the work. Avoid selecting several ways of describing the same interest.
For each, write an example you can discuss or a question that would change your understanding of the role.
Keep source task IDs with your notes so you can return to the same description. Do not include private employer or customer information.

The exported worksheet distinguishes the reported task from your own notes. It supports exploration, not a hiring decision or a validated assessment.

Keep your worksheet

Download before leaving this page. Unsaved writing remains only in the page and is cleared on refresh. Notes and learning actions are not sent to a server. This guide describes an occupation and supports study planning; it does not provide clinical, legal or equipment-operating procedures.

Source and practice material

Occupational context uses the O*NET® 31.0 Database from the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, under CC BY 4.0. View the occupation.

Skill Workbench selected and adapted the occupational information and added its own fictional cases, calculations, guidance and worksheets. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed or tested these additions. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.