Need info on what you LOVED about your pinning ceremony

Nurses General Nursing

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Hello all,

As president of my school's nursing club, I get to help organize the pinning ceremony. I will go to this year's ceremony next month to see what it's all about, but I'm wondering if any of you have some ideas for me to talk about our next meeting. How was your ceremony? Anything you loved? Anything you hated? I gather that pretty much everyone has a photo slide show playing in the beginning, accompanied by music that has to be meaningful in some way, but what else?

Thanks for your help,

Lemur

Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

We never had a pinning ceremony.

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Specializes in ICU.

I graduated last June - so make sure your gym has A/C, or keep the ceremony short! LOL - seriously, my class was about as big as your class. We did the slide show before the ceremony started. (Spectators got to watch it, we didn't but did take home CD's of the powerpoint.) We had a speech by faculty, a speech by the class president, recited the pledge, presented the class awards, then did pinning. Each person was allowed to have a personal statement read. Most people didn't adhere to the size limit, though, which made the pinning part lo-o-ong. The ceremony lasted 3 1/2 hours, in a hot gym. Ugh. I have to say it was overall really nice, just really long. You might put (strict!) limits on length of the graduates' personal statements to help with this.

We did the pinning differently from most schools. We were required to have a nurse pin us. It could be a friend or family member, as long as it was a nurse. If you didn't know another nurse to pin you, faculty would pin you. We were really organized on this - had everybody lined up and waiting for their turn on stage, and we were seated in alphabetical order, so you didn't have to trip over anyone to get to the stage. Having a rehearsal helped a lot.

The most moving thing we did at our pinning (for me) was at the end. We formed a circle around the auditorium and invited everyone in the audience who was a nurse to join the circle. Then we all got real candles. Then, we dimmed the lights, and faculty brought in a lamp with a flame, and we passed the flame around the circle while music was played. (Not sure of the song, but the chorus starts with "hold out your candle, for all to see it") It was so beautiful, and very moving.

My ceremony lasted really late - 9:30 pm. The faculty had punch and cookies available for everyone, but it was so late, and on a Thurs. night, that most people just split. I went out to a restaurant with my family afterwards.

We had kind of a "class day" on Wed., the day before pinning. We had rehearsal in the morning (with paper "nurses caps" - that was really cute and fun), then a class luncheon afterward, and some of the girls went out afterward.

Hope this gives you some food for thought - good luck and have fun with your planning!

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Specializes in med-surg 5 years geriatrics 12 years.

No pinning ceremony for us. We got our pins when we got our degree. We did have a capping ceremony; we had the lamps and candles and after we were all capped recited the Nightingale pledge. Capped by instrutors with loved ones in the audience.

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oops... see below

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The one thing I wish we had done was have the person of our choice pin us. As it was, the director of our program pinned us...and most of us didn't know her from Eve. We all had a special person we wanted to share that moment with (and she wasn't it).

Our school also used a list of everyone that was graduating, rather than of who was present. It was kinda awkward to call someone's name and realize they weren't present for whatever reason. (Call order solved by RSVPs, check in on pinning night and a computer would have taken care of this).

I'm not a big fan of ceremonies, so maybe I'm hypercritical. I will say we had a special moment when the school gave an honorary presentation to an awesome guy in our class that made it halfway through the program, but had to leave after being DXd with a terminal brain tumor. Although he has been given less than a year survival, he was still in pretty good shape (couldn't tell anything was wrong unless you saw his scars), and he was presented. Must have been dusty in the building, cause my eyes got pretty watery.

All in all, I would suggest figuring a way where the pinees can honor someone who walked the journey with them, be it another student or family member. It may take a little more work and creativity, but I think it would add a ton of meaning to those participating.

Do you remember what exactly your class did or said to honor your classmate? My class also had a tragedy. We lost a classmate the first semester. She passed away from a heart attack and we are wanting to honor her in some way. We were told we could not give her a Pin but we could do something else for her. We thought of giving her family a plaque or something but not sure of what to say on it. Something along the lines of making her an "honorary nursing graduate" or so. Any suggestions?

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Specializes in Forensic Psychiatric Nursing.

I was president of my class, and what I loved most about my pinning ceremony is that I was out of state to attend my friend's wedding.

I thought everything about the pinning ceremony was boring and took too long, was too expensive, wasn't any fun, etc. OK, we all worked hard and spent a lot of time together. Let's all hold each other hostage for five hours, etc.

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma.

I was pres of my class, 2007. It was 2 weeks after my 13 year old son was killed. I gave a speach something No one trips over a mountain it is the pebbles that we stumble on, make your way through the pebbles and soon you will find you have crossed the mountain. More to it than that but those were the opening words and because I had just lost my son, there was not one dry eye in the house. Our program director also made a speach as well as a guest speaker we all voted on, our fav OB prof. After we had cake and punch, thought about a dinner but of course we voted on every little decision so cake and punch won. Great times were had by all. Oh we also introduced all staff and facilty and lit our lamps at the end with Pledge.

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Specializes in Emergency/Trauma.
Do you remember what exactly your class did or said to honor your classmate? My class also had a tragedy. We lost a classmate the first semester. She passed away from a heart attack and we are wanting to honor her in some way. We were told we could not give her a Pin but we could do something else for her. We thought of giving her family a plaque or something but not sure of what to say on it. Something along the lines of making her an "honorary nursing graduate" or so. Any suggestions?

We too lost a fellow student. She had a heart attack in the first semester of second year. We were allowed to give her family a pin in her honor and made a speach about all her hard work and how she would have made it far. Some such thing like that.

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Specializes in Med-Surg Nursing.

We got to pick the person to pin us. I chose my parents. And I got to pin my classmate since her son didn't bother to show up. She was very sad about that.

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