No One Dies Alone (NODA) Program

NODA is appropriate

• If the care team believes the patient will live less than 72 hours
• The patient is DNR
• There are no friends or family at the bedside
• The next of kin has been called and confirms that no one is coming to be with the patient. (This is important so that we don’t have a volunteer arrange their schedule to come, only to find that a family member has arrived)

To Activate NODA Support Team

Call the NODA pager (8122). Pager is listed in the CNS pager directory. The NODA coordinator will call the unit and speak to the patient’s nurse, requesting general condition, whether the patient has MRSA, etc.

NODA cannot provide vigils for Covid or TB patients.

We will do our best to provide a volunteer 24/7, realizing we have limited volunteers at this time.

NODA History

On a rainy night at Sacred Heart Medical Center, in Eugene, OR, a nurse had an encounter with a man whom she will never forget. He was one of her seven patients, near death, and a “Do Not Resuscitate” (DNR) patient. During her initial rounds, he asked, barely audibly, “Will you stay with me?”  He was so frail, pale and old. She replied, “Sure, as soon as I check my other patients”

Vital signs, passing meds, chart checks, assessments and bathroom assistance for six other patients took up most of the next hour and a half. When she returned, he was dead. She reasoned he was a DNR, with no family and end-stage multi-organ disease. But now he was gone and she felt awful. It wasn’t okay that he had died alone.

For years after that night, that nurse talked with peers, administrators and others about a dream of developing a program so patients would not have to die alone.  Sixteen years later, in 2001, her dream became reality with the birth of the NODA program at Sacred Heart Hospital.

Loma Linda University Medical Center began our NODA program in 2009, patterned after the program in Oregon. We have a dedicated group of 15-20 volunteers who provide compassionate companionship for patients who have no family or friends at the end of their life. In the first seven years of our program, we provided this care for more than 215 patients.

Individuals who would like to serve as a NODA volunteer must be an employee of LLUH or volunteer in another capacity in the hospital. Training is provided.

For more information, contact Employee Spiritual Care at (909)558-7261.