“There is such strong meaning in just being in the presence of someone else. It’s an intangible, powerful thing.”
~ Christine Wang, Harborview NODA Volunteer, in “No One Dies Alone” by Billie Featherston – full story below
What is NODA?
NODA volunteers offer companionship to dying patients at Harborview who are without family or friends to sit with them. The companionship offered is very simple and is based on what the person or their next of kin requests – holding the person’s hand, reading, praying, singing, sitting quietly. It is non-sectarian and volunteers do not proselytize, respecting the patient and the patient’s own faith tradition. Training is provided to new NODA volunteers by the Harborview Spiritual Care Department and Harborview Volunteer Services Department.
By Suzie Wiley, Helen Smith ~ January 31, 2019
By Billie Featherston ~ April 4, 2019. Illustration: Paige Gedicke
By Stephanie Perry ~ 2018. Illustrations © 2018 Kary Lee
Ann Patnaude, Harborview NODA Volunteer, and Jill Rasmussen-Baker, Director of Spiritual Care at Harborview, share about Harborview’s NODA program with KING 5’s New Day Northwest host Margaret Larson.
Read the full article here.
Listen as Rob Long, Harborview NODA volunteer, shares with DailyUW
about his experience with patients.
Read the full article here.
Learn more about Harborview’s NODA Program in the Fall 2018 issue of UW Medicine Magazine.
Read the cover story here.
NODA (No One Dies Alone) was founded by Sandra Clark, CCRN, in November 2002 at Sacred Heart Medical Center in Eugene, Oregon. She created the program with the help of the Spiritual Care department in order to care for those patients who were dying and alone. Her passion for the program came through her nursing experiences. One troubling and meaningful patient experience shaped much of her desire for the NODA program. It was a night in which she was working as a nurse and was asked by a gentleman, “Will you stay with me?” She promised the patient she would come back, but by the time she had cared for her other patients the man had died. Troubled by his words, she collaborated with the Director of Pastoral Care at Sacred Heart Medical Center, Bob Scheri, and NODA as a volunteer program was born.
The NODA program at Harborview is now accepting applications for community volunteers. Please complete the application form and email it to chaplain@uw.edu. You can also mail your application to Harborview Medical Center, Department of Spiritual Care, 325 9th Ave, Box 359786, Seattle, WA 98104.