The Clinical Embalming Experience
Giving You the Tools to Succeed
PIMS provides one of the most comprehensive clinical laboratory experiences in the country at our state-of-the-art Care Center, which was completely redesigned in 2024. Our Care Center features a four-station embalming and preparation facility equipped with a variety of brands, equipment, and chemicals, allowing students to explore and identify the best tools for their future careers. As part of clinical training, all PIMS students are required to complete embalming cases under the guidance of a licensed funeral director and embalming clinical instructor.
Certified Training & Resume Building Work
On Campus, we care for over 600 decedents a year, allowing our students to gain extensive knowledge of the process with real hands-on work.
Each of our student teams of three to five students completes their 20 embalmings, surpassing the standards set by the American Board of Funeral Service Education, within our four-station embalming facility.
Online students are required to become affiliated with a local funeral home of their choosing. They have the option of completing their 20 clinical embalming requirements with a funeral home they are affiliated with near their home or, if close by, may join one of our campus teams and follow their rotation schedule.
What's The Learning Experience Like?
This unique clinical experience involves fully participating in actual human embalming cases.
This is not an observational task. For campus students this will be completed on campus. For distance education students this can be completed at a nearby funeral home where the student lives or on campus with one of our campus teams. All clinical embalming cases are performed under the direct supervision of licensed PIMS instructors on campus or licensed embalmers for distance education.
Here is what else you can expect:
Preliminary Requirements: A valid PA Funeral Trainee License is required to perform any clinical embalmings. This is required for ALL PIMS students, campus or distance education. This requirement along with an in-depth explanation of expectations is reviewed in the student’s first term Strategies for Success Course.
Approval Process: No student shall begin training until the clinical embalming affiliation packet and supplemental documentation is received, and a visit (virtual or in person) by an authorized PIMS representative has been performed.
21 Individual Embalming Cases
The clinical embalming experience will include a minimum of 21 individual embalmings (20 as previously stated and one final embalming on campus for all students to evaluate tools for successful completion.)
Progress Tracking & Mentorship
Case-by-case evaluations will be based on the student meeting a series of tasks and objectives set forth in the Master Reference. Students must keep a record of their progress which must be confirmed by their preceptor at the completion of the embalming.
Evaluation
An overall evaluation progress report is completed by the clinical embalming preceptor.
FINAL ASSESSMENT
The final assessment is Pass/Fail and will be scheduled after 20 embalmings have been completed for the program. This final embalming, termed the CLEAN-UP, must be performed at the campus under the supervision of an ABFSE qualified PIMS licensed embalmer.
A couple important things to note →
- The Clinical Embalming is NOT the same as the Funeral Practicum experiential learning component however, in the case of Distance Learning Students the Clinical Embalming may be performed at the same location as their Practicum (campus students perform their clinical embalming on campus).
- A valid PA Funeral Trainee License is required to perform any Campus based clinical embalming cases. This is required for ALL PIMS students, campus or distance education.
HAVE QUESTIONS?
WHY IS THE EMBALMING CLINICAL NEEDED?
Clinical embalming is a requirement of all students enrolled at ABFSE accredited mortuary schools.
WHO IS INVOLVED IN THE CLINICAL EMBALMING?
The student, PIMS, and a funeral home (e.g. the owner of the business, supervisor, or his/her designee, if they are a licensed embalmer) for Distance Education students.
WHAT IS INVOLVED?
As per the curriculum requirements listed in the ABFSE Standard 5.4.6 a student, under direct supervision by a licensed funeral director (either a PIMS instructor or a responsible presenter at a service providing funeral home), must actively participate in 10 embalming cases. ABFSE Standard 5.4.6.a-h enumerates the following tasks as requirements for the Clinical Embalming:
- 5.4.6.a Each student must actively participate in at least ten embalming cases in order to fulfill the clinical embalming component of the curriculum. There shall be no more than five (5) students per case receiving credit for a specific embalming. There may be additional students observing; however, they may not interrupt or interfere with the embalming process or distract the preceptor while the embalming is in process.
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5.4.6.b Active participation means hands-on learning and must include, at a minimum, the following tasks:
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5.4.6.b.i raising vessels
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5.4.6.b.ii mixing fluids
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5.4.6.b.iii injecting fluids
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5.4.6.b.iv cavity treatment
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5.4.6.b.v suturing incisions
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5.4.6.b.vi posing features
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5.4.6.c Credit for individual cases will be allowed for only those students actively participating. No embalming case credit shall be given for those students observing the case. The number of observing students must be limited to ten (10) unless a video system or amphitheater is large enough to accommodate additional students without interfering with those students actively participating.
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5.4.6.d Embalming case reports validating student participation are required, must be uniform in nature, and signed by the student and the instructor or preceptor. Each case report must document:
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5.4.6.d.i details of embalming treatments and
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5.4.6.d.ii a detailed list of the student’s participation in the case
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5.4.6.e The program must provide substantive evidence of the technical competence of each graduating student. Such certification must be performed by a faculty member.
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5.4.6.f Embalming case reports must be retained for at least seven years.
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5.4.6.g Embalming cases may be completed in an on-campus setting or at an off-campus instructional site.
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5.4.6.h Off-campus embalming instructional sites where students receive college credit are to be physically visited by a representative of the program and approved prior to the start of instruction.
WHAT IF I AM TAKING CLASSES ONLINE OR DOING LONG-DISTANCE LEARNING?
The clinical embalming experience is required for all students. It is the responsibility of the student to become affiliated with a funeral home of their choosing to complete all tasks. It is also the student’s responsibility to obtain their PA Trainee license, no matter their state of residence or intended licensure. No student shall begin training in the clinical embalming until a visit (virtual or in person) by an authorized PIMS representative has been performed.
HOW MAY THE DESIGNATED TASKS FOR THE EMBALMING CLINICAL BE PERFORMED?
The tasks, as described in the Master Reference must be performed either: a) at the campus Care Center under the direct supervision of PA licensed embalmer who is an ABFSE qualified PIMS faculty/adjunct faculty member; or b) under the direct supervision of state licensed embalmer at an approved establishment for distance education students.
WHEN MAY THE DESIGNATED TASKS FOR THE CLINICAL EMBALMING BEGIN?
The clinical embalming experience can only begin AFTER the student has successfully passed the Embalming Orientation course through PIMS and the submission of all required paperwork, site approval is approved, and PA trainee has been obtained. If the student has not fulfilled this requirement before the 2/3rds point of the distance education program, they will be removed from the program.
WHAT IS THE COST OF THE CLINICAL EMBALMING ?
Fees related to the clinical embalming learning experience will be billed at $710 in the last term. Travel fees to perform the site visit for online students are billed to the student, however, site visits are limited to a one-hour driving radius from the Institute.
DISCLAIMER ABOUT “PERFORMANCE”
Terms such as “performance, perform, or do” are used throughout this document about the completion of tasks. These terms, when used in the context of this clinical with regard to tasks facilitated on campus or at the site of the service provider and/or under the auspices of the responsible presenter, specifically relate to participation by observation. “Performance” is not intended to be literal in this sense; it does not mean that a student must do all the detailed nuances for a given task. Rather, the student is awarded credit by observing such a task under the guidance of his/her responsible presenter. Simulations at the Pittsburgh Institute under the direct supervision of PIMS instructors may require actual engagement of the task.