Attention New Grads- Pinning Ceremony Question - page 2

Singing songs? Lighting candles?

Ugh.

This is a profession that we're entering here, not a sorority. I could do without the kumbaya stuff.

Still not sure exactly what our pinning will be but it's outdoors during the day so I'm sure we'll pass on the candles and I KNOW we're not singing. Each of us will be pinned by the person of choice. I'll probably choose my kid but considering having my favorite clinical instructor.

While it is a profession, there is nothing wrong with a ceremony . We have been planning ours, we have a couple of the instructors who are class advisors and we pretty much planned it based on what was done in the past. We have a keynote speaker, the director of our program , president of college all speak..class speakers take a 'trip down memory lane" type of speech and this year we have included a slide show of our 2 years..faculty pins us..flowers given to speakers and dignitaries, programs made up..lots of student volunteered their talents to donate some of these things..we have been raising money for charities and pinning the last year and a half so the ceremony has cost us about 15-20 dollars per student( about 65 in class0..this includes faculty gift which this year will be a single donation to the allied health fund so that items may be purchased as needed for classroom and labs. No superlatives as far as favorite teacher( we voted it down..seemed high schoolish). We are fortunate that we were able secure a hall large enough that we are not limited in our guest list..but no candles allowed, but the concert hall is letting us use thier batter operated candles..and we will do the nightingale pledge..

Agreed, nothing wrong with ceremony. It's the nature of said ceremony which becomes a matter of preference.

The other thing that we're doing is having some students put together a group presentation summarizing the journey that we've shared together. Some others are putting together a poster board with pictures. We're following the pinning with a reception since it'll be the last time that we're all together.

When I graduated from the LPN program, we didn't do candles (fire code), but what we did do was have a pastor from a church most of the students went to come in and do a "Blessing of the Hands" -- one of the student's brother has his own band and he sang "Testify to Love" by Avalon -- we gave gifts to the professors, received our certificates, and we were given flowers. We had a small reception afterwards. It was nice to see all the families sharing their war stories about us being in school....

Do male nursing graduates get white flowers as well?

In our pinning ceremony, the female students received a red long-stemmed rose, and the male students received a boutineer (sp?).

Just an idea out there for pinning.
Our nursing instructor instilled in us for the pinning it is her honor to pin us as in she is passing on the profession. She said that as nursing students we were really under her license at clinicals even though we were all LPNs at the time. You should take it as an honor to be pinned by an instructor. I have heard many stories out there of people having their kids, spouse, or parent pin them. That is what my LPN class did and although it makes for cute pictures, think about the meaning behind the pinning and it should be a fellow nurse. Now if your mom or someone that is a nurse is going to do the pinning that makes sense, however if not I would seriously consider having a nurse do it.

Just an idea for flowers...we did carnations, but maybe for the more "masculine" idea (we didn't have guys that made it all the way thru, and their uniforms didn't have lapels for the boutineers) -- maybe a mix of traditional healing herbs and flowers? Sage, larkspur, barberry, etc.? As a sort of personal grin, I have a small flower garden in my front yard. All the flowers have (or are alleged to have) healing properties. Foxglove, Lavender, lemon balm, peppermint, etc. I'm going to suggest it if I get that far, and drying the bouquet will make a nice pommander for the closet....

In LPN school we were pinned by out teachers (I was first, and threatened to scream "OW, bloodwings!"). If we get to get pinned by someone else, it would be my aunt, who's a retired nurse. It's like the lamp is lit from another lamp; a nurse is pinned by another nurse.