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:)

I did not celebrate passing NCLEX, the way I celebrated the end of my nursing school. I was proud to get my $7 pinn, and it's the most prized item in my jewlery box,lol! Shame, for depriving NG's this beautiful, old nursing tradition.

:(

When the class of 2011 at my school had a general convocation ceremony with the health science students, the MSNs and DNPs, I was disappointed. Imaging my surprise and joy when it was announced that there would be a pinning ceremony for the class of 2012. This is the only ceremony I want to attend. I'm sorry, but the other graduating students of 2012 in the other colleges do not know what the heck I had to go through to get my degree. They didn't work half as hard. Even the pre-med students didn't do half the work that we nursing students had to do to get to this point (their hard work will come later). I am not even bothering with the commencement ceremony because I have no connection with the other graduating students.

And hopefully my school pin order was not lost, because I will wear that pin every day to work.

Specializes in orthopedic/trauma, Informatics, diabetes.

We are an ADN student and were not going to get one. We organized our own :)

How sad........I sit here slowly shaking my head. What is a police officer without his badge? You have a college degree a bachelors in science....like every other Bachelors of science. What are you going to do to celebrate that you worked for you bachelors harder than every other bachelors graduate by becomming a nurse. A choice above the rest. I think the pinning ceremony rewards and designates us being different from the rest. It celebrates us a caretakers of the sick and injured. It celebrates ALL that work we have done to get us where we are.....That we are a nurse and we are proud.

If we don't have a clear vision and connection to where we have been........

we will never be able to see where we are going clearly.

How very terribly sad......:sniff: wow just wow.

I completely agree!! That is a day I have dreamed about since I knew I wanted to be a nurse. I don't care about attending the graduation but the pinning means a lot to me!! Makes me wonder why it holds more importance to some and not others? Interesting topic!

The pinning ceremony was not (as someone commented earlier in the thread) "created" to set the nursing students apart from the other graduates. Pinning ceremonies date back to hospital-based diploma programs, at which they were the official graduation ceremony, the only graduation ceremony there was. Now that most nursing programs are in community colleges and universities, which have school-wide commencement exercises, that commencement exercise is the graduation ceremony, for all the graduates. College and university officials don't really see a reason why the school should pay for the nursing program(s) to have an additional, extra ceremony at graduation that the other colleges and departments don't have, and are seriously irritated that so many nursing students skip the official commencement ceremonies (that has been a big deal at the schools in which I've taught). I agree that the pinning ceremonies are now redundant and pointless at most schools (and I say that as an old diploma-school grad, who has treasured memories of my own pinning ceremony, which was our graduation), and I have no problem with them being eliminated, esp. the way so many schools "do" them now. Most of the pinning ceremonies I read about on this site sound more like highly structured graduation parties than anything else (slideshows of memories from school, family members pinning graduates, etc., etc.), and very far removed from the original intent and purpose of "real" pinnings. And students planning and putting on their own pinning ceremonies makes exactly as much sense as having students plan and put on their own commencement -- if the pin (or degree) isn't being officially conferred by the school, it's meaningless.

Certainly, nursing students have worked hard to get through school, and deserve to have some special get-together to celebrate their accomplishments and enjoy each others' company as a group one, last time -- you should certainly put together a great party for yourselves and your families; just don't call it a "pinning ceremoney," because it isn't. It doesn't mean you can't get a pin; at my graduate school commencement, we were handed our pin along with our degree, and I wear that pin every day at work, the same as I do the pin from my diploma school. But, outside of diploma schools that aren't affiliated with any college or university (and there are v. few of those left), pinning ceremonies are simply a hollow, sentimental, pointless exercise. TPTB in nursing have worked long and hard for the last few generations to get nursing education out of hospital-based schools and into colleges and universities -- well, it worked and that's largely where nursing education is happening now. And students at colleges and universities have commencement exercises when they graduate. I'm not sure how we can justify wanting to have it both ways (and I don't really see how, as some here are arguing, nursing students are so different and special and more important than graduates from other majors that we deserve a whole separate, special ceremony).

Specializes in Mental Health, Hospice Care.

call me a sucker for tradition if you want to but....I am really looking forward to our pinning ceremony, in fact much more emphasis is placed on this ceremony than anything else....I will be very proud to have my wife and kids, extended family see this incredible moment....I would be really bummed if this tradition were to go away, very meaningful in my opinion....

...back i n the day, in addition to capping, diploma schools also held striping ceremonies. (students officially advanced to the next level of school) I really see nothing wrong with any ceremony that gives recognition for a job well done...

I am an old, old diploma nurse, and we had capping, striping, and pinning ceremonies!

Since we no longer wear caps, the pin is what might distinguish me from other nurses in a group. I also still have my ceramic Nightingale lamp, with the school crest on it, in a place of pride in my home!

My pin represents all that work, all that sweat, and all those tears!

And there were covers, on the R.N. Magazine, that showed so many pins. So interesting.

I am not sure how you would do a pinning without an official pin from the school.

My class of 88 was the first class that did not have a capping ceremony, we did get pins though, and I still keep it as a prized possession after all these years. I recall our class discussing the capping, and since nobody wore caps anymore the classes general vote was not to be capped. Times sure are changing!!

Specializes in Rehab, critical care.

My first degree was non-nursing, but I enjoyed the graduation ceremony, etc. From nursing school, the pinning was held during the graduation ceremony. It wasn't anything super special, just got a pin placed on my shirt lol, but I still think it's a nice tradition, but I'm kind of the sentimental type. Every time I go visit my family, there's certain traditions we have. What can I say? I'm a sap lol. And, to me, there's no reason to "abolish" it; it doesn't make one nursing school superior to another as your school would have you believe lol.

I graduated last year from a school of nursing ranked in the top 10 in the country in US News and World Report. It's located in a large metropolitan area known for fine schools and hospitals, and I am currently working in the hospital "across the street" from said School of Nursing. My nursing school graduating class was about 600 strong with half getting Graduate degrees and half Bachelors. In fact, we graduated the largest class of nurses in the state and the graduation ceremony was massive. As nursing graduates we had our own pinning ceremony and rah-rah session in the same building, but it took place before the actual convocation so we got to celebrate twice. The only reason I am saying all this is that I graduated from a huge, well respected school of nursing and the majority of my classmates were thrilled to be pinned. We chose people who meant a lot to us and who helped us get here, and they pinned us. Some chose a special faculty member or mentor, some chose a spouse or one of their kids. One of my classmates chose to be pinned by the first black graduate of the school of nursing, a wonderful elderly lady who is an inspiration to all of us. Anyone who says this ceremony didn't mean anything or that larger programs are abandoning pinning ceremonies is being disingenuous. If administration thinks it is a hassle, or if they want to save money, or if they have some other motive, they should just come out and say it. The notion that pinning ceremonies somehow diminish the standing of the school is ludicrous. Congratulations on your achievement and keep fighting to keep the special traditions of nursing alive; nursing is a breed apart, unlike other undergraduate programs, and every time a hallowed tradition is discarded like it doesn't mean anything, part of that unique bond among nurses also is lost. Just my 2 cents!

Specializes in ER, progressive care.

I loved my pinning ceremony. I would have been very upset if my school decided not to have it!

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