It was such a simple thing, Cindy Lakey said.

Just a silly game of cards.

"Thirty minutes," she said, "something to keep him occupied" until the panic finally began to ebb and the young man with the damaged brain settled back into his hospital bed.

It was so basic, she said. "And yet, it was such a joy for me to be able to be there, to be able to do that for him and for his family."

Lakey, who worked as a nurse in Boston some 10 years ago before taking a break to raise her three children, is among more than two dozen nurses involved in a groundbreaking volunteer nurse program at St. John's Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis. The medical center is part of the Chesterfield, Mo.-based Sisters of Mercy Health System.

The volunteers work between four and eight hours each week in a variety of hospital areas, assisting staff nurses in intensive care units, on regular medical floors and in specialized areas including palliative care for terminally ill patients.

The five-year-old program, which was among the first of its kind in the country, has spawned similar programs in hospitals throughout the U.S., said Sally Rundquist, RN, clinical supervisor for the volunteer nurse program. At a recent meeting of the American Society of Directors of Volunteer Services, she said, 10 hospitals in California, North and South Carolina and Florida expressed interest in beginning similar programs.

Rundquist said that several volunteer nurse programs have begun in Missouri and Illinois as a result of St. John's lead.

Volunteering offers retirees and other nurses a chance to "get back to what nursing is all about, get back to just good old TLC (tender loving care). That is something very special," Rundquist said. "It is a gift to the patient, a gift to the nursing staff, and, most of all, a gift to yourself" as a nurse.

Volunteer nurses monitor vital signs, assist with bathing and meals, gather the medical histories of newly admitted patients and provide patient information to staff nurses.

Mary Tisdale, who retired to the St. Louis area after working as the nursing director of a community health center in Kansas City, Mo., said the volunteer nurse program fits her needs perfectly. Employed nurses don't often have the time to spend more than a few minutes with a patient; Tisdale prefers to linger. "I introduce myself as a volunteer nurse, and people seem pleasantly surprised," she said. "I spend a lot of time talking to patients, and listening to them," she said. "There is no one pushing or rushing me."

Volunteer nurse Bonnie Griffing, who left full-time nursing in 1981 to raise her children, said the return to hospital work has been gratifying. A former Peace Corps and Red Cross nurse, she volunteers two mornings a week. The work keeps her in touch with a profession she loves.

"It is just something that has been very satisfying," she said. "I didn't want to be someone who sleeps in late every morning and just hangs out. I needed purpose, meaning." Griffing is confident her volunteer work makes a difference in the lives of her patients.

During one recent shift, she spent an hour helping feed a patient - time that a staff nurse would not have had to give. Another time, she had a lengthy conversation with a patient who had been refusing to drink fluids. Griffing eventually learned that the woman was avoiding liquids because she was too embarrassed to ask staff to help her use the bathroom.

"Sometimes, things take time," Griffing said.

Wendy Gabel, a full-time registered nurse with St. John's, said the volunteer nurse program has been a "huge asset" to staff. "We could use more of them," she said.

Peggy Phillips, who retired after 28 years of full-time nursing in the St. Louis area, volunteers at St. John's one day a week, in palliative care. "They give me the freedom here to do what I need to do," she said.

Sometimes, what she needs to do is listen.

Phillips related the story of a middle-aged woman dying of breast cancer who was "very angry at God for causing all of this." By talking with her, Phillips learned that the woman was most angry because of her estrangement from one of her three sons. Phillips sat with the woman as she dictated a letter to her son, telling him how much he meant to her.

"It was this incredibly beautiful letter, and I believe she died a much more peaceful death because we were able to do that. I have the time to do those things," she said. "Another nurse might have thought about it, but she wouldn't have been able to sit at that woman's bedside for an hour and do that. She wouldn't have had the time.

"It's the time. That's what I have to give," Phillips said.