Nurse honor guards pay tribute to health care heroes at funerals nationwide

In 2011, Julia Godby Murray founded the National Nurse Honor Guard Coalition. As its president, she has been aiding families within the industry on a nationwide scale ever since. A 510c3 non-profit organization of volunteer nurses, the coalition is a way for health care heroes to honor the loss of nurses that have passed away and to aid grieving families.

“She slowly began reaching out to groups through social media and at this point she has helped organize over 215 groups get their start,” the coalition’s website reported on social media, detailing a brief history of its founding. “She started the National Nurses Honor Guard Coalition which helps groups get started and allows groups to help each other grow.”

Wearing traditional white uniforms along with caps and capes, the nurse honor guards pay tribute to health care heroes who have passed on by attending memorial services with lit lamps — a practice carried out by nurses who tended to soldiers in the 19th century. The nurse honor guards then perform a brief ceremony.

“As they gather at the front of the room, they flank the casket or urn and begin a short ceremony that includes the placement of a white rose to honor them for being their colleague,” according to the coalition’s Facebook page. “They then ask any nurses present to stand as they do a final roll call.

“The name of the nurse is called and asked to report for duty. A chime is rung, after the nurse’s name is called, and they call the nurse to duty three times. After no response they say the name and say ‘We officially release you from your nursing duties.’ The lamp is extinguished and given to the family with quiet words of condolence. The Nurses Honor Guard then files out and is seated.”

For participating health care heroes, it can be a powerful moment.

“Once people saw what we were doing, it started taking off. They were inspired just like I was the first time I saw it,” Murray told Nurse.org.

“As nurses, we are born healers; this is how we help heal families,” she said. “But it also heals the nurses. It brings dignity and respect back to our profession; when you wear that uniform, an overwhelming feeling of pride comes over you. It helps families, but it helps us nurses too.”