Abolishing the Pinning Ceremony

Nurses General Nursing

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  1. Should the Pinning Ceremony traditionally held to honor graduate nurses be abolished?

    • 61
      yes
    • 245
      NO

306 members have participated

Hi all,

I am currently a nursing student in a BSN RN program heading into my senior year (woo hoo almost done). I have also been elected Vice President of the Student Nurses Association at my school and today I got hit with a big blow in an officers meeting!! I was advised that the ceremony to honor the culmination of all my and my peers hard work is no longer going to be celebrated; as the school has decided to do away with the pinning ceremony.

Initially, i was at a loss from words. I remembered sitting in my very first nursing class and learning about what a prestigious honor it is to be pinned; to be recognized and welcomed into the the profession of nursing. When I questioned the faculty as to why this decision has been made, there only response was that "The pinning ceremony is more common place in associate programs..." (My school is a BSN program)...they followed with our school "is trying to become a larger school, in terms of the nursing program, and we found that the larger schools no longer have a pinning."

So my question is, is this true? Has it become more common place to not have a pinning ceremony? Is this a long held tradition that has fallen to the way side? If so is there some sort of recognition held in lieu of a pinning? and if so what? Personally, I DO NOT want to let this tradition go and I feel if this is the case it is a shame. Myself and the other officers are trying to gain feedback on this issue. We are also tasked with breaking this information to the rest of our class, whom i feel will be just as upset as I am. However before doing so, we want to have sufficient enough information and a petition prepared in the event the general consensus is to fight for our right to be pinned! Please let me know what you all think of this, or if you have heard that the recent trend is to do away with the pinning and what schools are doing so. My college is located in New York, very close to the city.

Thank you for all your input:)

Specializes in LTAC, ICU, ER, Informatics.

I will graduate this December, and am glad our school still has pinning for each class. If I wanted to walk the stage for my diploma, I'd have to wait until next May. I seriously doubt many in my class would be there for that. Walking for my diploma has no real meaning for me... getting my pin does. I actually wish that we still had caps for the ceremonies, but get why that isn't really practical anymore.

I'd rather not, because I would get clobbered by certain posters here. I'll just say that it was very religious, and I didn't feel I cold attend. I do think it was somewhat ironic that they threatened to withhold my pin for not attending a ceremony that focused on religion.

WWJD?

Obviously am not the OP so cannot speak to her school's practices at their capping/pinning but do know many schools especially those either run by religous groups or affliated with them had ceremonies that were almost as if one was entering a convent.

Compare some of the images seen here:

Flickr: The Nursing History Pool

and here:

Catholic Nuns, Brothers - a set on Flickr

With what goes on here (4:40 to end):

Now of course no one was going to chop off your hair or change your name, but there was enough emphasis on God, purity, religon, virginal, vows and so forth.

Many ceremonies took place in churches and even when they did not the table on which the caps and or pins were laid was covered in a fresh, clean, bright white and perfectly folded white cloth. Almost like an altar. Nurses often knelt on a prie dieu to receive their caps, and so it goes.

I will graduate this December, and am glad our school still has pinning for each class. If I wanted to walk the stage for my diploma, I'd have to wait until next May. I seriously doubt many in my class would be there for that. Walking for my diploma has no real meaning for me... getting my pin does. I actually wish that we still had caps for the ceremonies, but get why that isn't really practical anymore.

That was the other problem.

Many colleges or universities with nursing programs found that many graduates of the nursing program thought more of the capping/pinning ceremony (if it was held apart) than attending the main event as it were. Often few if any bothered showing up to "walk" as it were. This furthered the attitude of some in administration that nursing grads thought they were *special* and apart from the rest of the student body.

Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
that was the other problem.

many colleges or universities with nursing programs found that many graduates of the nursing program thought more of the capping/pinning ceremony (if it was held apart) than attending the main event as it were. often few if any bothered showing up to "walk" as it were. this furthered the attitude of some in administration that nursing grads thought they were *special* and apart from the rest of the student body.

no different from medical students having their "white coat" ceremony. if that university has a medical school, i'll bet they wouldn't dream of abolishing that.

if the nursing student body wants a capping/pinning ceremony, let them have it. i still remember my capping ceremony fondly.

Specializes in ICU.

For what it's worth, my white coat ceremony was completely stupid.

That was the other problem.

Many colleges or universities with nursing programs found that many graduates of the nursing program thought more of the capping/pinning ceremony (if it was held apart) than attending the main event as it were. Often few if any bothered showing up to "walk" as it were. This furthered the attitude of some in administration that nursing grads thought they were *special* and apart from the rest of the student body.

I felt like walking at commencement (which I did for family) was impersonal and a little ridiculous, since I only had the option of attending commencement in May when I still had summer classes to attend. No one skipped commencement due to pinning - many people did both, many did neither. But they are different ceremonies that celebrate different things. I felt like my pinning ceremony was more intimate and honored my entrance into nursing, not my exodus from college.

Specializes in Neurosciences, cardiac, critical care.
I was the student rep my last semester in an ADN program at a CC and we were told by the Dean that pinning ceremonies were "old school" and not professional it wouldn't look good on our resume, local hospitals would look down on us, etc. This was 15 years ago.[/quote']

Who puts a pinning ceremony on their resume? I don't even know what that would look like.

My school had a Pinning ceremony & graduation for the whole school (CC in southern Cal). None of my classmates went to the graduation. The pinning was very memorable & meaningful for all of us.

I'm sure an argument could be made against pinning ceremonies, but it seems like one of the nice, sentimental "sacred cows". Just my :twocents:

Who puts a pinning ceremony on their resume? I don't even know what that would look like.

My school had a Pinning ceremony & graduation for the whole school (CC in southern Cal). None of my classmates went to the graduation. The pinning was very memorable & meaningful for all of us.

I'm sure an argument could be made against pinning ceremonies, but it seems like one of the nice, sentimental "sacred cows". Just my :twocents:

I can tell you what it would look like: ridiculous.

Our pinning ceremony was also special and I don't think any of us would have missed it.

Specializes in Med/Surg.

My school actually had 2 pinning ceremonies. The first was halfway through the program where we were capped & then pinned by someone of our choosing. The second was a small ceremony the day before our graduation that was just for the graduates & faculty. We were pinned & also given our honor medallions if we had received them. I am glad our college had both ceremonies. Noone skipped out on the actual graduation ceremony b/c of the pinning ceremony.

I graduated in February from an ADN program.. our school provided us a pinning ceremony... granted I was a part of a very small cohort but I saw the ceremony as our official Welcome to Nursing.. it was short and sweet, we said the "Nurses Pledge" with the other RNs in the room that night.. our pins are beautiful and I will forever keep mine!! Our program finished months ahead of the the other colleges at the University so the ceremony was our "graduation"... None of us cared to participate in the University ceremony in June... We worked our butts off and survived that program, the pinning ceremony was our official end to the madness of nursing school and beginning of our careers...

but to each their own... I'm glad we had our pinning!!!

I know I'm chiming in long after the thread was posted, however, I was just informed that my school will no longer be holding pinning ceremonies, starting next year. They are converting our gymnasium into a wellness/fitness center. They contracted with the local university to use their arena for the graduations ceremonies but not for pinning ceremonies. We were led to believe when we started our program (an accelerated 1 year LPN to RN) program that we would be pinned next June (2013) but now they've changes their minds. They are expecting us to walk in the graduation ceremony in May wearing a cap and gown and our pin on that, then go back to school the next week for our summer semester/Practicum, and then finish out June 20, at which time we will get our actual signed degree. At the graduation ceremony, we get a blank document.

Specializes in Med-Surg, Transplant.

I had a beautiful pinning ceremony-didn't expect that it would end up being as meaningful to me as it has ultimately become! I don't understand the whole thing about it not being "professional," as I went to a very well-regarded BSN program and there was absolutely no discussion from them about doing away with the ceremony. What could be unprofessional about a well-organized ceremony that includes speeches from successful nurses, attendees dressed in spotless white, and honors for some of the best nurses graduating that year?

I guess I am a little biased toward being very complimentary of "my" ceremony because of one of my favorite memories I have from it: a few days after it was over, my mom told me that it was only after seeing it that my stepdad realized what an awesome accomplishment nursing school was for me and how amazing some of my professors were. So, yeah, I think we should keep pinning :-)

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