"No One Dies Alone" Launches at Stamford Hospital

No One Dies Alone (NODA) was founded in 2001 by Sandra Clarke, an intensive care nurse in Oregon, who saw a need. Clarke realized that there wasn’t a program to provide constant support to dying patients without family or friends and began a volunteer-driven program to provide “compassionate companions” to patients.

Today, NODA is in place in hospitals nationwide and this year, the program launched at .

“I’m a hospital volunteer and there was a buzz about it for awhile — I have a background in hospice, so my ears perked up,” Leslie Palazzo-Kane said. “At the start of the summer, Deborah Fedeli asked me if I’d like to be a part of it.”

They planned a training program that would prepare volunteers for the role of compassionate companion — a training that blends the background of the program with hospital guidelines, some hospice training, and information about the end of life.

“We watch a video that shows a person when they are well and follows them through to the end of life — you form a bond with the person in the video and that helps when a person is just lying there, you have to conjure up who they were,” Palazzo-Kane said.

The volunteer training also helps the hospital to prepare volunteers and screen to be sure everyone is emotionally prepared for the role.

“People who are passionate about this come to us, but they also need to recognize what it entails,” Deborah Fedeli, Stamford Hospital’s Director of Patient-Centered Services, said. “If you’ve had a significant loss in the last year, it’s just too fresh. We want to make sure they’re comfortable.”

Many of the compassionate caregivers are hospital employees, but employees working in non-clinical roles — the administrators, the secretaries, people who work in the hospital environment but not in healing roles.

They have also made adjustments to the program to make it work for Stamford. One of the largest changes they have made is the decision to provide companionship not only to patients without friends of family, but to anyone whose family or friends cannot be with them all the time because of work or geography.

“It’s been amazing,” Fedeli said. “The family members who have been touched by this can’t express how much it meant to them — how surprised they were to learn something like this existed. It’s a great thing to be able to offer.”

Today, there are 80 trained volunteers who have performed 13 vigils since the program began. When a vigil coordinate receives a call that a patient on comfort care and with a do not resuscitate status has 48—72 hours to live, the coordinator begins to call volunteers and put together a vigil schedule. Their goal is to provide as much back-to-back coverage as possible. Volunteers arrive at the hospital and pick up the NODA bag  — a kit containing a CD player, some soothing music, flameless candles, and books of poetry and short stories.

“You just sit and talk about anything — the weather, what you’re making for dinner, you can read to them, hold their hand,” Palazzo-Kane said. “An hour goes very quickly when you’re in that mindset.”

It sounds so simple, but Stamford Hospital recognizes just how much this kind of volunteer work can take.

“It is tough, we check in with our volunteers and if you don’t want to be alone for your first shift, a seasoned volunteer can be there,” Fedeli said. "It's a very sarcred time."

“It does take a special type of person to be with someone while they die — they’re kind, caring, they aren’t afraid of death,” Palazzo-Kane said. “It is hard, but that moment of peace is just amazing and you know you’ve done something for this person that no one else could do. It’s totally giving of yourself.”

If you are interested in learning more about NODA or participating in a training program this winter, contact Stamford Hospital’s Volunteer Department
at (203) 276-7521.