{"id":127138,"date":"2024-02-07T00:06:48","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T05:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=127138"},"modified":"2024-02-07T00:06:48","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T05:06:48","slug":"celebrating-one-year-of-st-lukes-nurse-honor-guard-heartfelt-ceremony-gives-families-comfort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=127138","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating One Year of St. Luke\u2019s Nurse Honor Guard  |  Heartfelt ceremony gives families comfort."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Photo caption,\u00a0from left: Christine Ritter, Kathyrn Hertzog, Susan Hecker, Denise Snyder<\/em><\/p>\n<p>What began as a humble ceremony to honor nurses at their funeral memorial service at St. Luke\u2019s Carbon Campus has grown exponentially in a year\u2019s time to reach every St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network campus.<\/p>\n<p>St. Luke\u2019s Nurse Honor Guard, which pays tribute to nurses who have left this life with the Nightingale Ceremony, has honored more than 120 former nurses as the group celebrated its first anniversary on Feb. 1.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is one of the best, if not the best, community service I\u2019ve ever been involved with,\u201d said\u202fDenise Snyder, BSN, RN and Lead Chair of the St. Luke\u2019s Nurse Honor Guard, who is a full time ICU nurse at the Carbon Campus.<\/p>\n<p>Very much in the tradition of being buried with military honors, the emotional Nightingale Ceremony is often the last rite performed before the final blessing, and is free to all former nurses, whether they worked in the Network or not.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Nightingale Tribute \u2013 Known as the \u201cLady with the Lamp,\u201d Florence Nightingale saved many wounded soldiers during the Crimean War with her pioneering nursing work. In many ways, she laid the foundation for professional nursing. During the services, a member of the Honor Guard reads the Nightingale Pledge and a nursing sonnet, then places the rose while saying the nurse\u2019s name and, \u201cWe honor you this day and give you a white rose to symbolize our honor and appreciation for being our nursing colleague.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Honorary Pallbearers \u2013 The Honor Guard may be requested to attend the visitation and\/or funeral services to serve as honorary pallbearers.<\/li>\n<li>Casket Honor Guard \u2013 The Honor Guard may be posted at the head of the casket, standing silently to give their last respects.<\/li>\n<li>Final Call to Duty \u2013 The Final Call to Duty may be performed during the services or at the gravesite. During the Final Call to Duty, the Nightingale Lamp is lit in the nurse\u2019s honor, and the nurse\u2019s name is called out as a request to report to duty. After the third and final call, and with no response, the nurse is announced as retired, and the lamp\u2019s flame is extinguished.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Snyder said she has participated in 40 to 50 of the ceremonies to honor her fellow nurses, and the sincerity of the ceremony fills the surviving family and friends with a sense of pride.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think families find a special sense of closure, that we didn\u2019t forget that they devoted their lives to caring for others,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt brings their loved one\u2019s career in nursing full circle. A career in nursing starts by the honor we receive at the time of our capping or pinning at our nursing school graduation. It stays with us throughout our nursing career until the end, when the honor guard performs the final call to duty, which is unanswered. They are then relieved of their nursing duty to rest in peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last April, Snyder launched the pilot with the support of Marjorie Federanich, St. Luke&#8217;s Carbon Auxiliary President, and John Nespoli, President of the St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network\u2019s Lehighton and Carbon campuses.<\/p>\n<p>Last June, St. Luke&#8217;s Home Health and Hospice President Lisa Giovanni attended and was moved by the service. Giovanni and David Gibson, Vice President of Patient Care Services at the Lehighton and Miners campuses, encouraged Snyder to present about the Nurses Honor Guard during the September meeting of the Network Nursing Executive Council. Carol Kuplen, the now-retired Chief Nursing Officer for St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network and President of the Bethlehem Campus, was instrumental in getting the initiative rolled out to all the campuses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have also started to do a Physician&#8217;s Tribute\u201d Snyder said. \u201cThis tribute if for the physician who embody the philosophy of Nurse &#8211; Physician relationship who work together to bring the patient to good health.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Today, more than 130 nurses and former nurses take part in the Nurse Honor Guard, wearing the traditional nurse\u2019s hats and capes for the ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>St. Luke\u2019s Nurse Honor Guard services Lehigh, Luzerne, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe and Schuylkill counties in Pennsylvania, and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.<\/p>\n<p>For more information, to request services or volunteer go to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.slhn.org\/patients-visitors\/nurse-honor-guard\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Learn More<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Founded in 1872,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.slhn.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 300+ outpatient sites.\u00a0 With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network\u2019s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke\u2019s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.\u00a0 In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school campus.\u00a0 It also operates the nation\u2019s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 45 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 400 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke\u2019s, a member of the Children\u2019s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.<\/p>\n<p>SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare\u2019s\u00a0<em>five-star<\/em>\u00a0ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.\u00a0 It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades\u00a0<em>Top Hospital<\/em>\u00a0and a Newsweek World\u2019s\u00a0<em>Best Hospital<\/em>.\u00a0 The Network\u2019s flagship University Hospital has earned the\u00a0<em>100 Top Major Teaching Hospital<\/em>\u00a0designation from Fortune\/PINC AI 11 times total and eight years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.\u00a0 In 2021, St. Luke\u2019s was identified as one of the\u00a0<em>15 Top Health Systems<\/em>\u00a0nationally.\u00a0 Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the\u00a0<em>Most Wired<\/em>\u00a0award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. \u00a0The Network is also recognized as one of the state\u2019s lowest cost providers.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nSam Kennedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo caption,\u00a0from left: Christine Ritter, Kathyrn Hertzog, Susan Hecker, Denise Snyder What began as a humble ceremony to honor nurses at their funeral memorial service at St. Luke\u2019s Carbon Campus &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=127138\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Celebrating One Year of St. Luke\u2019s Nurse Honor Guard  |  Heartfelt ceremony gives families comfort.<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Nurse-Honor-Guard.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=127138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/127139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=127138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=127138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}