Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in Fayetteville is taking part in an international volunteer program called “No One Dies Alone.”
It aims to train and place volunteers with patients that would otherwise be alone in their final moments. Cape Fear Valley finished training their first cohort of volunteers this month and will be available to connect with consenting patients, starting Tuesday.
Rachel Thurnher is a cardiac nurse at Cape Fear Valley and coordinator of the program. She developed a passion for end-of-life patients throughout her career, which led her to look for additional ways to help them.
“I often think we talk so much about birth, and there’s all this support surrounding pregnancy, and there’s gender reveals, and there’s pregnancy announcements, and there’s a doula for birth,” Thurnher said. “And, what support do we have at death?”
The process of providing company for a patient will start when they’re put on a comfort care order — meaning they likely have 72 hours left to live. At that point, the patient or their next of kin will be able to consent to volunteers coming to sit with them.
Thurnher is the person that will coordinate the volunteers’ time with that patient. Aside from the physical company, items like blankets, music, and various religious texts will be available for use at a patient’s request.
“These are people who outlived their family members,” Thurner said of those that will benefit from the program. “Maybe they never had children. Maybe they are estranged from family, or maybe their family just lives really far away. I mean, they could be here in a North Carolina hospital, and their family’s on the West Coast, and death has no timeline, so even though providers say we think 72 hours, we can’t predict that, and we really don’t have a lot of control over it. So, while the family’s on the way, or maybe if a family member’s here, but has to work during the day or take care of their own children, we try to fill in those gaps.”
A nurse named Sandra Clark founded the program in 2001 after a Do Not Resuscitate (D.N.R.) patient died alone.
It’s an experience that isn’t uncommon for healthcare workers. Benjamin Beason, manager of the hospital’s heart center, recalled a final conversation with one of his D.N.R. patients.
“I just met this guy, and we were talking back and forth like it was every other day, and that was his last conversation,” he said. “It really touched me, ’cause like I can remember that like it was yesterday. And so this kind of makes me feel that kind of feeling again, like maybe I can be that last positive conversation that somebody has.”
Beason signed up early on as a volunteer. Several others also work at the hospital. However, Beason said they want the program to go beyond Cape Fear Valley’s walls.
“The goal is definitely to, probably by this time next year, be in the community, be at the hospice houses, have a huge group of community volunteers that want to do this,” he said.
Thurnher is already taking the program to the community. She led a bereavement training for nursing students at Fayetteville Technical Community College and hopes to keep spreading the word.
Meanwhile, Beason looks forward to offering comfort to patients outside of his healthcare role.
“I think in a lot of cases, people are holding on to something before they pass, and they’re looking for that safe space or something,” he said. “And I think that’s probably the biggest thing, as much comfort as it is taking away the fear for them.”
Cape Fear Valley is the only hospital in the state currently implementing the program. Other hospitals, like UNC Health, have run it before. A spokesperson for UNC Health says theirs is currently on hold. But, they still have a similar program called Compassionate Companions.
To learn more, visit Cape Fear Valley’s volunteer services page.
