Doing Death Work: A Mixed Method Examination of Imprinted Events and Behavioral Responses of Medical Examiner Office Staff

Abstract

This study provides a qualitative and quantitative analysis of data from interviews of current and former staff of medical examiner offices. The current and former positions of these staff members required that they arrive at the scene of natural, accidental, and intentional deaths, retrieve the body, and assist in the evisceration of the body to help a medical officer determine the cause of death. The authors interviewed 14 staff members of different medical examiner offices about what they liked, disliked, and struggled with in the job. Additionally, study participants answered questions about imprinted events, how they and colleagues responded to the job, behavioral adaptations to the profession, and views about treatment or programming to assist persons in handling this type of work. The study identified a range of imprinted events and reasons why certain circumstances are meaningful and memorable. These professionals personalize their experiences and utilize bluntness in their conversations with family and friends about life, risk, and parenting. These death workers become risk aversive, change their friendship dynamics, learn to not take life for granted, and parent and see children differently. Some participants indicated that they experience dreams and relationship difficulties. Although study participants expressed an openness for treatment and programming, this support was typically in the context of assistance for others who needed help to cope.Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily. -Francois De La Rochefoucauld People universally experience death indirectly and eventually directly, yet it gets discussed sparingly. Death is hard. It is uncomfortable. A family member, friend, or acquaintance of a decedent must deal with an end when it occurs, and the effects of a death of a loved one can be complex and protracted (