Nurses Honoring Fallen Nurses

Abstract

Nurse honor guards are groups of volunteer nurses that attend fellow nurses' funerals or memorial services and conduct a brief ceremony to recognize the nurse's dedication to the profession. These ceremonies incorporate elements of nursing's history, including the wearing of traditional nursing uniforms. Nurse honor guards highlight that nurses not only tend to the well-being of their patients but also share a collective responsibility to support and care for one another. This article describes what nurse honor guards do and discusses the authors' experiences participating in them.