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 2011 Carma Erickson-Hurt, MSN APRN ACHPN® LCDR USN RET
Carma Erickson-Hurt, a long standing member of HPNA, volunteered in Haiti to help with the recovery efforts after its devastating earthquake in 2009. Carma, who teaches health assessment classes at the Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona, volunteered for a 3 month rotation as the Chief Nursing Officer for Project HOPE. Three years ago she retired from the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps after serving for 20 years.
Carma first worked with Project HOPE when stationed on board the USNS Comfort in response to the Tsunami disaster in 2005. During 2010, Ms. Erickson-Hurt served as the HOPE Medical Director onboard the USS Iwo Jima and ashore in Nicaragua and Panama.
 2010 Natalie Casey, RN
Mrs. Casey is being recognized for her 61 years of work as registered nurse, including spending the last 42 years of her long career at UPMC Passavant. Until suffering from cardiac arrest this past February, Natalie, 83, worked a six-hour shift, five days a week at the hospital, sitting with patients and helping them with whatever they needed. Much of her time was spent in conversation with patients, which she believes is a critical part of nursing.
After graduating from Allegheny High School on Pittsburgh’s North Side in 1945, Natalie joined the Cadet Nurse Corps, part of the homeland World War II effort. She went on to train at St. John’s Hospital in Pittsburgh where is became a registered nurse. Natalie worked for a short time at Bellevue Suburban and St. Clair Hospitals, both local community hospitals, before finally arriving at UPMC – Passavant in 1967.
With decades of nursing experience and personal attentiveness to her patients, Mrs. Casey has found that the greatest medicine doesn’t come from a pill or a bottle. “I found out that if I took a genuine interest in my patients, it took their minds off what they were in the hospital for,” she says. “Nursing isn’t just delivering medicine and changing bandages. If you listen to somebody, it’s surprising how much their outlook can change.”
 2009 Sandra Clarke, RN
Ms. Clarke is being recognized for her work as the founder of the “No One Dies Alone” (NODA) program, which provides a reassuring presence of a volunteer companion to dying patients who would otherwise be alone. NODA encourages hospital employees to participate as “compassionate companions” for “elder orphans”. These companions read, sign, play music, provide a quiet vigil or hold a patient’s hand when family members cannot be present.
Established in November of 2001, NODA is an all-volunteer program and operates with only a small grant to subsidize the printing of program materials. The written NODA manual, which was authored by Sandra Clark, has been distributed to more than 400 hospitals, hospices, and AIDS care facilities worldwide.
Ms. Clark first developed the “No One Dies Alone” program after attending to a dying patient who was alone and without family present. After the passing of this particular patient, Sandra envisioned her idea for putting together a group of volunteers made up of hospital employees who would be willing to sit with the alone and dying. During the next 16 years, Sandra’s idea for the NODA program did not move beyond casual conversations and meetings. It was not until a hospital employee overheard Sandra’s idea and presented her program to hospital administration for consideration. In only six months time, the “No One Dies Alone” program was created based on a simple plan without creating a new department and with only minimal financial impact.
Ms. Clarke works at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene, Oregon. Her Final Farewell program was also featured in the May 2008 issue of “O” Magazine with an article titled, “The Kindness of Strangers.”
 2008 LuJan Meketi, RN
LuJan has established a new program that honors nurses who have died. The program is called the Final Farewell and is fashioned after the special funeral services provided for firefighters, police, etc. As LuJan has stated “Who better deserves a Final Farewell than a nurse – one who dedicated her or his own life to taking care of others.” The program has two parts:
Part I: Easing the family’s pain– by providing services, carrying out requests of the dying nurse prior to death, donating to a local college nursing scholarship. A white flag with a red cross and the nurse’s name embroidered on it is placed at the head of the casket. Honorary pallbearers attend the visitation and funeral services and wear traditional white nursing uniforms and the familiar blue and red capes. They enter the chapel in single file with the left wing of their capes folded back showing their nametags with a black ribbon attached. During the services, one of the pallbearers addresses the congregation and shares memories of the nurse’s time on duty.
Part II: Saying good-bye: the honorary pallbearers stand watch as the casket is put into the hearse. At the grave site, a Nightingale lamp is lit in the nurse’s honor. After the chaplain’s prayers, the nurse’s name is requested to report to duty. When there is no response, the nurse’s name and license number are called out twice more with the same request. After the third and final call, the nurse’s license number is announced as being retired and the lamp’s flame is extinguished. The white flag with the red cross is folded and presented to the family as a token of appreciation for the nurse’s devotion to the profession. The left wings of the pallbearers’ capes are then draped forward covering their nametags as they walk silently away from the grave site.
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