According to people in this career, the main tasks are...
| Task | Importance |
|---|---|
| Conform to laws of health and sanitation and ensure that legal requirements concerning embalming are met. | 96% |
| Apply cosmetics to impart lifelike appearance to the deceased. | 94% |
| Join lips, using needles and thread or wire. | 94% |
| Close incisions, using needles and sutures. | 93% |
| Incise stomach and abdominal walls and probe internal organs, using trocar, to withdraw blood and waste matter from organs. | 93% |
| Clean and disinfect areas in which bodies are prepared and embalmed. | 93% |
| Dress bodies and place them in caskets. | 93% |
| Make incisions in arms or thighs and drain blood from circulatory system and replace it with embalming fluid, using pump. | 92% |
| Remove the deceased from place of death and transport to funeral home. | 92% |
| Perform the duties of funeral directors, including coordinating funeral activities. | 91% |
| Attach trocar to pump-tube, start pump, and repeat probing to force embalming fluid into organs. | 90% |
| Reshape or reconstruct disfigured or maimed bodies when necessary, using dermasurgery techniques and materials such as clay, cotton, plaster of Paris, and wax. | 90% |
| Pack body orifices with cotton saturated with embalming fluid to prevent escape of gases or waste matter. | 90% |
| 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. | 90% |
| Insert convex celluloid or cotton between eyeballs and eyelids to prevent slipping and sinking of eyelids. | 89% |
| Assist with placing caskets in hearses and organize cemetery processions. | 87% |
| Maintain records, such as itemized lists of clothing or valuables delivered with body and names of persons embalmed. | 86% |
| Wash and dry bodies, using germicidal soap and towels or hot air dryers. | 86% |
| Arrange for transporting the deceased to another state for interment. | 85% |
| Perform special procedures necessary for remains that are to be transported to other states or overseas, or where death was caused by infectious disease. | 84% |
| Supervise funeral attendants and other funeral home staff. | 83% |
| Serve as pallbearers, attend visiting rooms, and provide other assistance to the bereaved. | 83% |
| Direct casket and floral display placement and arrange guest seating. | 81% |
| Arrange funeral home equipment and perform general maintenance. | 80% |
| Assist coroners at death scenes or at autopsies, file police reports, and testify at inquests or in court, if employed by a coroner. | 71% |
| Press diaphragm to evacuate air from lungs. | 57% |
