Some jobs are just jobs. After eight hours on a weekday, it ends without extra time demands.
But retired nurse Jan Themm said being a nurse isn’t one of those jobs. She was employed as a nurse for 42 years, but the responsibilities persist.
“Nursing is a calling; it’s a lifestyle; it’s a way of living,” she said. “Going to the hospital or a clinic or wherever you do your nursing work is your job. But then you’re at the soccer field with your children and you get called out to look at an injury … you step in.
“It’s just right.”
Themm, originally from Traverse City, recently started a branch of the nurse honor guard after moving back from the Grand Rapids area.
The Northwest Michigan Nurse Honor Guard is one of about 250 groups nationwide that volunteers to attend the funerals of nurses and pay tribute to their service as a nurse. The organization that started in 2011 was founded in Lansing.
In Michigan, these honor guards now cover about thirty counties.
But they don’t just wear anything to a tribute. The NHG members attend in a traditional nurse’s uniform: a crisp, white collared dress, a cap, and even a cape with their nursing pins.
During a service, NHG member and retired nurse Kathryn Gray said there are a few things that happen.
“When the lamp is lit during the service and everyone’s standing there while the tribute is read… then her name is read three times with a chime,” Gray said. “And then the name is read one more time and the candle is blown out.
“It’s very moving, we always get some teary-eyed folk because, of course, they’re the family of a nurse, so they get it.”
Much of the service is inspired by Florence Nightingale, who Gray called the “mother of modern nursing” for her work during the Crimean war.
The call-and-response recited by the honor guard is known as the Florence Nightingale Tribute. Gray said the lamp they hold near the end is inspired by the one Nightingale used to check on soldiers at night in Constantinople.
The Northwest Michigan Nurse Honor Guard did their first funeral tribute in March, but have been called on more frequently in the last few weeks. They now have 12-14 members, including active and retired nurses.
Themm recognized that nursing is an identity that doesn't go away, even after retirement.
“Our focus is on providing honor and dignity and respect, and just giving them a very special tribute, because once a nurse, always a nurse,” she said. “It’s hard for nurses to let go of, so to give them that grace to say you’re done, you’ve done your work.”
Nursing may be a calling, but what if there aren't enough people called to it? The Health Resources and services administration published in 2022 that federal authorities are projecting a shortage of almost 80,000 full-time Registered Nurses (RNs) by 2025.
Katie Pontifex is an associate executive director of healthcare practice, policy and strategic initiatives with the Michigan Nurses Association (MNA). She said the nursing shortage is less about the number of RNs, and more about the number of nurses willing to work in the hospital environment.
"Until we fix the environment... it can be unsafe for the nurse and the patient," Pontifex said.
She explained that preventable violence from unruly patients, burdening nurses with the jobs of ancillary hospital employees and dwindling resources make it harder for nurses to do their jobs safely.
Pontifex is a registered nurse who stepped away from patient work for those reasons. She said it's easy for nurses to keep taking on responsibilities "because we want to give to the patients what they need."
A package of three bills known as the "Safe Patient Care Act" was introduced to the Michigan legislature in spring of 2023. The bills are intended to set a maximum number of patients that can be assigned to a nurse at one time, limit the amount of mandatory nurse overtime and require hospitals to disclose their RN staffing.
