Join TidalHealth Nanticoke at 6 pm on Monday, May 5, 2025, as the Delaware Nurse Honor Guard performs the Nightingale Tribute for nurses lost through the years.
The Nightingale Tribute will take place at the Memory Garden located in the rear of the Seaford hospital next to the Nanticoke River; in the event of inclement weather, the event will occur inside the hospital lobby. The public is welcome to attend this event, and family members of nurses being recognized have also been invited.
Nurses spend much of their lives healing the sick and wounded and comforting patients and families. A Nightingale Tribute is a formal ceremony that honors a nurse's lifelong dedication to healing, compassion and service while also providing a dignified farewell and healing to grieving families. During the ceremony, the Delaware Nurse Honor Guard will recite the Nightingale Tribute and place a white rose to symbolize the nurse’s dedication to the profession. Afterward, the nurse’s name is called, followed by the ringing of a triangle. Then the nurse is honorably relieved from nursing duties, and the light from a Nightingale lamp that had been carried into the ceremony is extinguished.
“TidalHealth Nanticoke is proud to celebrate with the Delaware Nurse Honor Guard to honor the nurses who have gone before us," said Kimberly Pickinpaugh, MSN, RN, CCRN, Director of Critical Care Services and the Clinical Decision Unit at TidalHealth Nanticoke. “Nurses are born healers and it's important to recognize their legacies of compassion, courage and unwavering dedication. We will hold a Nightingale Tribute during National Nurses Week each year to ensure that every nurse is remembered with the respect they deserve.”
To learn more about this event, email [email protected]. To contact the Delaware Nurse Honor Guard, email [email protected].