I thought Id share a story...I was giving some new nurses a tour of the hospital & we stopped by the palliative care ward...One of the staff nurses was explaining the Honor Walk to them...When a Veteran passes away here, it is this facilitys belief that they came in through the front doors & they should leave the same way...not rolled away to a room in the basement & forgotten about...They place the Veteran on the funeral homes stretcher, drape them with a blanket of American flags made by volunteers, & escort them from the palliative care unit on the third floor to the first floor & out the front doors...They are led by a security officer & accompanied by palliative care nurses & family...An announcement is made over the hospitals intercom, about 10 minutes before, that an Honor Walk will be occurring. During those 10 minutes, staff members from housekeepers to physicians line the hallways to honor the Veteran...You will likely see some staff members, who are themselves Veterans, saluting as the stretcher passes by them...The palliative care unit here has 5 beds...The staff nurse told the new employees a story about one Veteran who had recently passed away on their unit...His room was on the back of their unit, so he would have to pass all of the other palliative care patients rooms when leaving...As the nurses were preparing the Veteran for his departure, this particular nurse told of how she went to the other patients rooms, drawing their curtains around their beds so that they would not have to see the activities occurring outside their doors...She talked about entering one of her patients rooms...An older, WWII Veteran who had previously suffered from a stroke & was now plagued with cancer...She said that he had stopped her from pulling his curtain closed, instead telling her that he knew what was happening, asking her to help him sit up in his bed, & to pull his curtains wide open...He asked if she would stay by his bed as the others escorted his brother out...Because of his past stroke, he was unable to lift his right arm by himself...When the family & staff passed by his door with the deceased Veteran, he asked the nurse to pull his right sleeve up to his face so that he could salute the fallen soldier...All of my new nurses were in tears when we left the palliative care unit that day...& so was I...Ask me again while I work where I do... :)
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 13:17:25 +0000
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