Montgomery County Nurse Honor Guard serves families of former nurses who have passed away

THE WOODLANDS, TX – Though dating back millennia to ancient civilizations in Egypt, Greece, and India, the nursing profession's earliest documented organizational forms emerged in the 5th and 6th centuries, as nursing became a charitable religious duty, with nuns, monks, and deaconesses providing care.

In the 19th century, Florence Nightingale transformed nursing from a low-status, untrained labor into a respected, educated profession, and in 1860 she founded the first formal nursing school in London, establishing the standard for professional nursing education. This era also saw the rise of other key figures like Clara Barton, who founded the American Red Cross, and Mary Seacole, who contributed significantly to battlefield care.

Today, there are approximately 30 million nurses saving and easing lives across the globe; the nursing profession makes up about half of the global health force, and is still statistically and historically female-driven, with women consisting of 85% of the total number of nurses.

Texas Nurse Honor Guard – Montgomery County, a nonprofit organization, is a volunteer group of active and retired RNs and LVNs that offer services at funerals for deceased nurses and former nurses. The volunteers also provide living tributes for nurses who are toward their end of life – over the age of 80 or diagnosed with a terminal illness.

“We exist to honor the lives and service of nurses by providing dignified, compassionate ceremonial presence that reflects the values, commitment, and legacy of the nursing profession,” said president of Texas Nurse Honor Guard Montgomery County Janna Billetbeaux, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, PCCN, MEDSURG- BC, CMSRN.

Billetdeaux received an LVN certificate from Blinn College in Bryan in 1989, her Associate’s degree in Nursing in 1992 from Excelsior College, a Bachelor’s in Nursing from Texas A&M in 2014, and a Master’s in Nursing from Texas A&M in 2017.

The Nurse Honor Guard originated in 2003 when the Kansas State Nurses Association established the first volunteer group to honor a nurse’s career-long dedication at their funeral. This initiative was sanctioned by the American Nurses Association in 2005, drawing inspiration from military honor guards to recognize the specific sacrifices of the nursing profession. The movement expanded nationally starting in 2011, and the Montgomery County chapter was one of the first groups in Texas, forming in 2017.

Billetdeaux has nursing in her family history and quite possibly her DNA to boot; her grandmother was a registered nurse and young Janna spent summers with her at a summer camp in the Hill Country. Janna’s grandmother suffered a heart attack the summer after her granddaughter started college. Though the heart attack wasn’t fatal, the camp allowed Janna to stay in the nurse’s cabin until her grandmother could be discharged. Becoming an impromptu nurse’s assistant to the other campers, Janna reconsidered her career path.

“You could say that nursing chose me that week. After I brought my grandma home, I changed my major, switched schools and started a nursing program a few months later,” she told Woodlands Online. “I am a firm believer that nursing both an art and a science. Healing the patient’s spirit is just as important as healing their body.”

Once firmly entrenched as a nurse dedicated to the succor of others, Billetdeaux decided to go yet another step further.

“My father was a member of the Houston Fire Department Honor Guard, so I had seen him honor his fellow firefighters and I thought that nurses deserved something similar. When I started doing some research, I found several active honor guards in the Midwest. I talked about it with my friend and coworker, Cheryl, and we decided to start one here. We asked several of our nurse friends to attend an interest meeting and that was the beginning,” she told Woodlands Online.

Once the local chapter was established, Billetbeaux and her fellow nurses wasted no time in spreading their care across the community.

“As president, I speak with the family to offer our condolences and get some information on their loved one so I can write a history of their nursing career that we read during the ceremony. I also work with the state coordinator to refer requests I receive for other counties to that area’s group. Personally, I want to make sure we can honor every request. Two of us drove more than two hours into Waller County for a service once because they didn’t have a chapter. And, last year, I performed a service for my daughter-in-law’s grandmother at her funeral in Illinois when the chapter there was unable to.”

Compared to a military tribute, the ceremony the Honor Guard performs releases nurses from their nursing duties with a Final Call to Duty. Nurses of the Guard wear what was traditional dress: white uniforms, capes, and caps. The ceremony can be compared to a transition ritual. The Nightingale Tribute or poem is read, and white roses are placed on a casket or adjacent to an urn. The nurses of the Guard state the nurse’s name and ring a triangle three times. Nurses may additionally be honorary pall bearers at services.

“By honoring our fellow nurses and highlighting their commitment to their profession, we are acknowledging the sacrifices they, and their families, made so they could care for their patients. For the families to know the difference that nurse made in the lives of others, gives them a sense of gratitude and appreciation for their loved one. We are honored to be able to do that for them,” Billetdeaux told Woodlands Online.

Though an established organization, this local chapter of the Honor Guard wishes to become better known and extend its reach to all who need it.

“We do want to increase awareness of our group, both to recruit more nurses to join us and to let families know the services we provide. As people learn about us, we’ve been receiving more requests and it’s getting harder to fulfill them, so we’re always looking for new members. Our services are completely free to the family. As a 501(c)3 charity, we accept donations to assist with costs associated with the ceremony, such as purchasing Nightingale lamps, and printing marketing materials to leave at funeral homes that detail our services,” she told Woodlands Online.

To learn more about the Texas Nurse Honor Guard – Montgomery County, visit their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/txnursehonorguard or on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/moco-tx-nurse-honor-guard/.