Free NBE Exam Flashcards

The GPL is an itemized list of every funeral good and service the firm offers, with individual prices. Under the FTC Funeral Rule, it must be handed to any person who asks about funeral arrangements in person, at the very start of the discussion — before prices, merchandise, or services are discussed.

The GPL is a menu given at the first visit before any selections are made. The Statement of Goods and Services Selected is produced after the family has chosen specific items — it itemizes only what was actually selected and becomes the binding, signed agreement.

The basic services fee covers overhead costs common to every case — funeral director and staff time, arrangement conferences, recordkeeping, and permits. The FTC Funeral Rule allows this single non-declinable charge because these costs are unavoidable regardless of which other goods or services a family selects.

Cash advance items are goods or services the funeral home buys from an outside vendor on the family's behalf and pays for out of pocket before billing the family. Common examples include honoraria for clergy, obituary newspaper fees, and flowers.

The authorization form documents that the legally authorized next of kin (or other authorizing agent) has given informed consent for a specific, irreversible procedure. Without it, the funeral home has no legal basis to embalm, cremate, or otherwise dispose of the remains.

A physician, coroner, or medical examiner pronounces death and establishes the legal time and circumstance of death. The funeral home cannot remove or begin preparing remains from a place of death until pronouncement has occurred, since it triggers the legal chain of custody.

Most states set a statutory priority order for who has the legal right to control disposition — typically a surviving spouse first, then adult children, then parents, then more distant relatives. The funeral director must follow this order rather than whichever relative arrives first or speaks loudest.

A pre-need arrangement is planned and often funded before death occurs, frequently locking in today's prices. An at-need arrangement is made immediately after a death, with the family choosing services and paying current prices right away.

A preneed trust is a state-regulated account where preneed payments are held and invested until the funeral is performed. A guaranteed-price contract additionally promises the family that the locked-in price will cover the funeral regardless of future cost increases — trust regulation protects the money, while the guarantee protects the price.

A casket is a container designed for burial or entombment viewing and protection. An alternative container is an unfinished, simple enclosure (such as heavy cardboard or fiberboard) built solely to hold the body for direct cremation, with no viewing or burial function expected.

Both are outer burial containers that hold the casket underground and prevent grave-site settling. A vault is a fully sealed, more substantial container offering greater protection; a grave liner is a simpler, unsealed concrete cover that only prevents collapse, at a lower price point.

Package pricing bundles goods and services into one bundled price, while itemized pricing lists and charges for each good or service separately. The FTC Funeral Rule requires funeral homes to offer itemized pricing so consumers can select and pay for only the goods and services they actually want.

Kubler-Ross describes an emotional sequence — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance — that a griever may move through in any order. Worden's model instead frames mourning as active tasks to complete: accepting the loss, processing the pain, adjusting to a world without the deceased, and finding an enduring connection while moving forward.

Anticipatory grief is mourning that begins before an expected death occurs, such as during a terminal illness. Disenfranchised grief is grief that others fail to recognize or socially support — for example, the loss of an ex-spouse, a pet, or a pregnancy — leaving the griever without validation or an outlet.

The funeral director should use active listening and empathy to support the family in the moment, but complicated or prolonged, impairing grief is outside a director's scope of practice — the appropriate response is a referral to a licensed grief counselor or therapist, not ongoing clinical counseling.

The FTC Funeral Rule is a federal consumer-protection regulation that requires funeral providers to disclose prices clearly and lets consumers buy only the specific goods and services they want, rather than being forced to purchase predetermined packages.

The casket price list must be presented before caskets are shown to the family, so pricing is known before any emotional attachment to a specific casket forms. This is separate from the GPL, which covers overall services rather than casket-specific pricing.

The outer burial container price list must be given before vaults or grave liners are shown, mirroring the casket price list rule — pricing disclosure always precedes the merchandise presentation for these FTC-covered categories.

No. The FTC Funeral Rule requires funeral providers to state prices for any funeral goods or services when a caller asks by telephone, not only for in-person visitors — refusing to discuss price by phone violates the Rule.

The funeral home must either disclose that it adds a markup or service fee to cash advance items, or state that the price charged is the same as the cost from the outside vendor with no markup. It cannot silently mark up these third-party costs without disclosure.

A certifying physician (or medical examiner for reportable/suspicious deaths) signs the death certificate to record cause of death. The burial-transit permit is a separate document, typically issued by the local vital statistics registrar, that legally authorizes transporting and disposing of the remains.

A retort is the cremation chamber itself. It typically operates between roughly 1,400 and 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, using intense heat combustion to reduce remains to bone fragments, which are then processed into cremated remains.

Alkaline hydrolysis uses a heated water-and-alkali solution at lower temperatures to chemically break down soft tissue, rather than combustion. It is often marketed as an eco-conscious alternative, while flame cremation remains the more common and widely available method.

Families purchase an interment right, which is the right to use a specific space for burial — not ownership of the land itself, which remains with the cemetery. A separate perpetual care fund typically funds the cemetery's ongoing maintenance obligations.

Disinterment (exhumation) generally requires a court order or equivalent legal authorization, since it disturbs a completed, legally authorized disposition. A funeral director cannot exhume remains simply at a family's informal request.

Formaldehyde is the primary preservative chemical in arterial fluid. It fixes tissue proteins by cross-linking them, which halts decomposition and firms tissue — this fixing action is why it is classified as the primary fixative.

Glutaraldehyde is added when additional fixation strength is needed beyond formaldehyde alone, such as in cases with advanced decomposition, edema, or when firmer, longer-lasting tissue fixation is required.

The index expresses the percentage concentration of formaldehyde (and related aldehydes) in the fluid before dilution. A higher-index fluid provides stronger preservation and firming action and is diluted more before arterial injection, or used undiluted for cavity treatment.

A humectant prevents tissue from dehydrating and becoming overly firm or leathery during and after embalming. An anticoagulant, by contrast, prevents or breaks down blood clots so that arterial fluid can distribute evenly through the vascular system.

The six-point injection embalms the body through six separate injection sites — the right and left carotid, axillary, and femoral arteries — to ensure complete arterial fluid distribution to the head, arms, and legs, typically used for autopsied or difficult-distribution cases.

Restricted cervical injection uses a single injection point at the neck (commonly the right common carotid) with the artery clamped so fluid is directed first toward the head and then toward the trunk and limbs, unlike the six-point method's six separate access sites.

The right common carotid provides direct, reliable access to distribute fluid toward the head first and then the rest of the body. Drainage — the removal of blood displaced by injected fluid — typically occurs from the corresponding jugular vein.

Arterial fluid has a lower index and is diluted with water before vascular injection, preserving and tempering tissue throughout the body. Cavity fluid is a much higher-index, undiluted fluid injected directly into body cavities via trocar to treat internal organs that arterial injection cannot adequately reach.

Aspiration is the removal of gases, blood, and fluids from the body's cavities using a trocar, a long hollow instrument. It is performed before cavity injection to prevent purge and to allow the cavity fluid to contact tissue directly.

In addition to arterial injection (often via six-point technique since normal vascular pathways are disrupted), an autopsied case requires direct cavity treatment — packing the opened thoracic and abdominal cavities with cavity fluid or chemical packs — since the organs are no longer in their normal, sealed anatomical position.

Feature building is the reconstruction of missing or damaged facial features — such as an ear, nose, or lip — using wax, which can be sculpted and blended to restore a natural, lifelike appearance before final cosmetics are applied.

Surface compounding fills shallow depressions, small wounds, or surface irregularities in the skin using a moldable compound, restoring a smooth, natural surface texture before cosmetics are applied.

Hypodermic tissue building is used when tissue volume is lost beneath the skin — such as sunken cheeks or emaciation — because it injects filler material under the skin to restore natural contour and fullness, rather than just filling a surface-level defect.

Mouth and eye setting positions the features into a natural, restful expression using devices or adhesives to hold the eyelids and mouth closed. It is typically completed early, before or during arterial injection, so the fluid helps fix the features in the set position.

Cosmetics are applied after embalming because they exist to match and correct skin tone and cover discoloration caused by the embalming process, injection sites, or postmortem changes — applying them earlier would not address the coloring the embalming fluid itself produces.

Massage cream softens tissue that has stiffened from rigor mortis or dehydration, making the skin more pliable so restorative techniques and cosmetics can be applied more naturally and evenly.

It requires funeral personnel to use universal precautions and appropriate PPE — gown, gloves, mask, and eye protection — whenever handling remains or bodily fluids, treating exposure risk as always present rather than assessed case by case.

Universal precautions means treating every case as though it were potentially infectious, regardless of the decedent's known medical history, since disease status may be unknown, unconfirmed, or undisclosed.

Disinfection reduces the number of microorganisms on a surface or instrument to a safer level but does not eliminate them entirely. Sterilization eliminates all viable microorganisms, including spores, and is the higher standard typically required for instruments that penetrate tissue.

A decomposed case typically requires a high-index (stronger) cavity fluid and additional surface treatment, along with heightened odor and disinfection control, because standard-strength fluids and normal procedures are insufficient against advanced bacterial breakdown.

Even under universal precautions, a known communicable disease case calls for additional PPE layers and more rigorous disinfection protocols, since the confirmed elevated risk justifies going beyond the baseline precautions used for every case.

Rigor mortis is caused by depletion of ATP in muscle tissue after death, which locks actin and myosin filaments together and stiffens the muscles. It typically resolves as tissue breakdown continues, generally within about 72 hours.

Livor mortis is the pooling and discoloration caused by blood settling under gravity after circulation stops. It appears in the lowest-lying areas of the body relative to its position after death and typically fixes in place within about 8 to 12 hours.

Algor mortis refers specifically to the postmortem cooling of body temperature toward ambient temperature, whereas rigor mortis is muscle stiffening and livor mortis is blood pooling — the three are distinct, independently timed postmortem changes.

Autolysis is sterile self-digestion of cells by their own enzymes, with no bacteria involved, while putrefaction is bacterial decomposition that produces gas and odor. Because putrefaction involves microbial activity, cases showing putrefaction need stronger antimicrobial/germicidal treatment than autolysis alone would require.