Creative Way to Honor Our Veterans

Treasa Rigney, the volunteer coordinator for Carilion Clinic's NRV Hospice has a huge heart for veterans. She was integral to our hospice being the first in Virginia to achieve Level V status of the We Honor Veterans program. Treasa continues to work to keep that status and to ensure our team is educated about the military, veterans, and how being a veteran can impact end-of-life care. We have recently increased our GIP program to include 3 area hospitals. GIP patients are typically very close to death. We sometimes only have a few minutes or hours to care for them. Treasa was concerned that our GIP patients that were veterans were not getting honored. In response to this, she has created binders for each site so that the case manager nurse or other team member can honor the veteran and their family before they die. I am in awe of her ingenuity and thoughtfulness. 

As you can see from the pictures, the honoring ceremony consists of a formal thank you for the veteran's service, including a certificate and coin specific to their service. The case manager nurse will fill in the patient's name on the certificate. There are also other items specific to different conflicts veterans served in. This honoring has been commented on by the veterans and their families as so meaningful to them. Some have never received acknowledgement for their service.

I'm blown away by Treasa and her creative solution and commitment to ensure all veterans have an opportunity to be honored before they die.