Chapter 11: Symptom control and care towards the end of life
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Pre‐procedural considerations
Verification of expected death will require the nurse to assess the patient for a minimum of 5 minutes to establish that irreversible cardiorespiratory arrest has occurred. Any spontaneous return of cardiac or respiratory activity during this period of observation should prompt a further 5 minutes of observation (Hospice UK [64]).
Procedure guideline 11.5