1.

Explain to whom and why the cause of death is significant.

1.1

2.

Explain the criteria for deciding who should be notified of the death.

2.1

3.

Explain how the decision is to be made about who should fill out the form in the case of a death by natural causes.

2.12

4.

Explain how the decision is to be made deaths that are remanded to the Medical Examiner or Coroner.

2.13

5.

Know which form and in what circumstances a Fetal Death Certificate should be completed.

2.21

6.

Understand the procedures for filling out the Fetal Death Certificate.

2.21.1

7.

Know the circumstances in which a standard Death Certificate form can be used.

2.22

8.

Know how to identify the place of death (particularly in the case of patients who die en route to the hospital in an ambulance or bodies found -- when unknown is the appropriate entry for place of death).

2.3

9.

Know when and how to amend the death certificate.

2.4

10.

Know how and when, and who should pronounce the time of death and enter this time on the Death Certificate.

3.1

11.

Know how and when, and who should certify the cause of death.

3.2

12.

Know how to specify a medically significant sequence of events as the cause of death

3.2

13.

Differentiate between the immediate cause of death and underlying causes of death (in a manner appropriate to the needs of vital statistics data-collectors and decision-makers about resource allocations).

3.2.a

14.

Know when a cause of death can (or should) be filled out as a simple, Part 1 one-line cause of death.

3.2.b

15.

Know when, how, and where to use "the WITH method" in specifying the cause of death.

3.2.c

16.

Know when and how to record the cause of death with an appropriate sequence of "due to" lines in Part 1.

3.2.d

17.

Know what to do when more lines are needed to fill in Part 1 of the cause of death portion of the Death Certificate.

3.2.e

18.

Know how to decide when a cause related to the death belongs as part of Part 1 or Part 2 of the cause of death portion of the Death Certificate form.

3.2.f

19.

Differentiate between the "mode of dying" (or "mechanistic terminal events") and a more relevant cause of death (and explain why the difference is important to accurate collection of vital statistics data).

3.2.g

20.

Know which designations of cause of death are non-specific "system failure" descriptions and understand how to add specific details in order to pinpoint a medically significant cause of death.

3.2.h

21.

Know how to specify the time sequence for the causes leading to the most significant cause of death.

3.2.i

22.

Be able to identify the most common errors in completing the death certificate and explain how to avoid these errors.

4.1