Gundersen Palmer nurse wins national award, drives exceptional hospice care

Angie Meyer has dedicated her career to caring for the elderly, but it’s a calling she almost missed out on until it affected her personally. Now, the manager of Home Health and Hospice at Gundersen Palmer Lutheran Hospital and Clinics is making an impact in her beloved sector of healthcare far beyond her community of West Union.

Meyer, who’s worked at Palmer for more than a decade and actively advocates for hospice care at the state and national levels, will be awarded the 2025 CHPN (Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse) of the Year Award in February. She and a contingent from Palmer will travel to Denver for the ceremony. Assisting with details of her career, Meyer was nominated by her coworkers for the national award, which is given annually by the Hospice and Palliative Credentialing Center.

“It’s a big, big deal for us,” Meyer said of the award and representing Palmer. “It’s an honor to be selected as the best certified hospice and palliative care nurse in the United States.”

What’s more, Meyer was voted president of the Hospice and Palliative Care Association of Iowa, of which she’s been a member since 2021, on Nov. 7. It’s a statewide organization that aims to assist its members in providing quality end-of-life care, educate the public about hospice care, advocate and represent the interests of Iowa hospices at the state and federal level, and form coalitions that support hospice. 

In addition, she has contributed to the American Nurses Journal and participated in various initiatives, including the Iowa LEAD Conference, the Iowa Hospice Veterans Partnership, and Hospice Action Week in Washington, D.C. That’s to say nothing of the work she’s done locally to elevate hospice and palliative care at Palmer.

Meyer earned her CHPN certification in 2017 and recently became an End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium instructor – one of three people in the state who hold that title. Prior to that, she became a registered nurse in 2014, and then in 2020, she earned her Master of Science in Nursing. Her goal is to provide professional education and information to enhance skills and knowledge in the provisions of hospice care. 

“I worked at the nursing home in my hometown of Postville where my passion for the elderly escalated. But it was when my grandfather was diagnosed with cancer and went through the hospice journey that I knew my calling,” Meyer said. 

After that experience with her grandfather, Meyer realized hospice and palliative care was what she wanted to do, and since then, she’s gone all in on not only sharing the knowledge she has with other care providers around the state but also making Palmer’s program well known and renowned. Simply put, she loves the people she cares for.

“The elderly have more experiences and stories to share, more words of wisdom. I have learned to cook from some of them; I have learned how to do arts and crafts from some of them. You learn a lot,” she said. “Hospice care is rewarding, in the sense that I know my loved ones and community members will live their final days to the highest quality possible. It’s not easy but worth it.”

Meyer also has a soft spot for veterans, who make up about 25% of patients in Palmer’s Home Health and Hospice. She helped usher in the We Honor Veterans program at Palmer, which has been retaining a Level 5 status, exemplifying their commitment to high-quality hospice care for veterans.

The program provides education not only for Palmer staff, but to others throughout the community as well. But most importantly, it allows Palmer to provide specialized care to that segment. As part of the requirements, staff hold pining ceremonies for veterans and their families, which honors their service and gives them the opportunity to share their story. They also plan and carry out many other community activities for veterans each year. 

“As we started doing the community activities, we saw how important it was to our veterans to be recognized, or to their families,” Meyer said. “Then we just kept expanding because of need and desire of the community.”

Meyer says all the effort she puts into end-of-life care and her career wouldn’t have happened had it not been for the support of her husband, her parents and the administration at Palmer.

“They have been my biggest cheerleaders,” she said. “They’re very supportive of it.”

“I’ve very proud to be able to represent Palmer and receive this award,” she added about the CHPN honor, “but I couldn’t have done it alone. This is something I did, but only because of the support I had.”