What exactly is a "pinning ceremony"??

LanaBanana · Jul 17, 2006

I think every school does pinning ceremonies different, but some do wear the caps and uniform, some just wear uniform. During the ceremony you will receive a pin that says "RN" or "LPN" whichever you are going for. It's usually in addition to a graduation ceremony because this is small and just for the nurses. It's more of a traditional thing and I think a chance for the nurses to celebrate making it through! I haven't gone through it yet, so maybe somebody who has can give you more info. Just didn't want you to have another post that nobody answered!

marilynmom, LPN, NP · Jul 17, 2006

Good question! I *think* it is in addition to your regular graduation, pinning is especially for nurses.

naja · Jul 17, 2006

The pinning ceremony is the right of passage from being a "student nurse" to being a graduate nurse. My school had a separate pinning and graduation from the college. Your pin represents the program or college you attendend. I found it to be very emotional and beautiful. We were required to wear all white, almost like virgins going out into the world. Remember you are not an actual RN until you take the beloved NCLEX.

luvmy2angels · Jul 17, 2006

We did our pinning at our graduation. We got our LPN pin put on us by our instructors.

truern · Jul 17, 2006

Our RN program has a pinning ceremony just for the nursing students complete with white uniforms, caps, lanterns, Nightingale pledge, etc. I didn't even go to my "graduation" ceremony because it included ALL graduates from all the other programs. I'm not aware of any of the nursing students attending graduation.

While the actual ceremony was moving and special, to tell the truth it was anticlimatic, for lack of a better word. There we were...finished with the program and yet we weren't nurses quite yet. Our pinning was May 3rd, we had a Kaplan review the week of the 15th, and I didn't take the NCLEX until June 26th. That's a long time to be in "limbo".

allnurses Guide · Jul 17, 2006

My pinning was completely separate from the college and we were discouraged from having our own pinning because it wasn't "professional".

We did it anyway. The only real controversy was that some nurses wanted to wear white uniforms and some wanted to just dress up in nice clothes. The vote was in favor of no white uniforms although one nurse did wear a white dress and cap. She was the only one though.

We held this at a lodge on the river - our family members could pin us or teachers . .although the teachers were discouraged from attending and only 3 did. My 8 year old daughter pinned me.

I'm glad we did it - oh, we did do a photo a few weeks earlier where we all wore white uniforms.

steph

JaxiaKiley · Jul 17, 2006

I always wondered what it was, too -- Thanks for asking!

elkpark · Jul 17, 2006

Pinning ceremonies originated when nursing schools were free-standing institutions affiliated with hospitals, and the pinning ceremony was the graduation ceremony. Now that nearly all programs are college/univerity based and the nursing students are earning a degree the same as all the other graduates of the school, more and more schools are eliminating the pinning ceremony -- it's hard to justify having what is, essentially, a second graduation ceremony for just one group of students.

It's esp. hard for the school to justify spending school money on a special ceremony for just one group of graduates, so more and more schools are leaving it up to the students themselves to raise the money and put on the ceremony if they want to have one -- and, if the students are raising the money and putting on the event, then the students get to have a lot of say in how the ceremony is done, and, IMHO, that's when everything started going pear-shaped with the pinning ceremonies ... :uhoh3:

Traditionally, pinning represented the school giving you its final, official "seal of approval" that you had completed the program and were competent and ready to go out into the world as a nurse -- and that they were proud of you and didn't mind having everyone else know that it was their school you graduated from :). You were pinned by the director of the program (the same as, when you graduate from college, it is the president of the college (or that person's designee) who actually hands you your degree -- you don't get to pick who you want to have hand you your degree at a college commencement, do you???), and wore white uniform (inc. cap) because your nursing pin is technically part of your professional uniform/attire -- it's not just another piece of jewelry that you would wear with street clothes.

Each school of nursing used to have its own, distinct pin, just like they each had an "official" cap -- you used to be able to tell by looking what school a nurse had attended (of course, there were a lot fewer nursing schools then). More and more newer nursing programs don't even have school pins, and so there is more use of "generic" pins for pinning ceremonies.

My personal opinion is that most pinning ceremonies now have gotten so far away from the original purpose and practice that they are more parodies of "real" pinning ceremonies than anything else, and (as much as it truly pains me to say it) it probably is time to just do away with them entirely. Nursing students these days are earning degrees from colleges and universities; the most appropriate thing is to participate in the college commencement (if one chooses to) and receive your degree along with all the other graduates. Nursing has moved on, and we all need to move along with it. Pinning ceremonies serve no real purpose any more, and are basically just sentimental claptrap.

allnurses Guide · Jul 17, 2006

Pinning ceremonies originated when nursing schools were free-standing institutions affiliated with hospitals, and the pinning ceremony was the graduation ceremony. Now that nearly all programs are college/univerity based and the nursing students are earning a degree the same as all the other graduates of the school, more and more schools are eliminating the pinning ceremony -- it's hard to justify having what is, essentially, a second graduation ceremony for just one group of students.
It's esp. hard for the school to justify spending school money on a special ceremony for just one group of graduates, so more and more schools are leaving it up to the students themselves to raise the money and put on the ceremony if they want to have one -- and, if the students are raising the money and putting on the event, then the students get to have a lot of say in how the ceremony is done, and, IMHO, that's when everything started going pear-shaped with the pinning ceremonies ...
Traditionally, pinning represented the school giving you its final, official "seal of approval" that you had completed the program and were competent and ready to go out into the world as a nurse -- and that they were proud of you and didn't mind having everyone else know that it was their school you graduated from :). You were pinned by the director of the program (the same as, when you graduate from college, it is the president of the college (or that person's designee) who actually hands you your degree -- you don't get to pick who you want to have hand you your degree at a college commencement, do you???), and wore white uniform (inc. cap) because your nursing pin is technically part of your professional uniform/attire -- it's not just another piece of jewelry that you would wear with street clothes.
Each school of nursing used to have its own, distinct pin, just like they each had an "official" cap -- you used to be able to tell by looking what school a nurse had attended (of course, there were a lot fewer nursing schools then). More and more newer nursing programs don't even have school pins, and so there is more use of "generic" pins for pinning ceremonies.
My personal opinion is that most pinning ceremonies now have gotten so far away from the original purpose and practice that they are more parodies of "real" pinning ceremonies than anything else, and (as much as it truly pains me to say it) it probably is time to just do away with them entirely. Nursing students these days are earning degrees from colleges and universities; the most appropriate thing is to participate in the college commencement (if one chooses to) and receive your degree along with all the other graduates. Nursing has moved on, and we all need to move along with it. Pinning ceremonies serve no real purpose any more, and are basically just sentimental claptrap.

Did you used to be the head of the nursing dept. at the school I attended?

Seriously - I agree that the college and/or univ should not allow one part of the school to have a school sponsored pinning. But I think if the students themselves want it, then they should, and it should be completely unaffiliated with the school. The purchase of pins makes it difficult - my school actually had pins for sale in the bookstore or you could go online and pick out your own. But as you say, then you lose that sense of graduating from one place.

steph

elkpark · Jul 17, 2006

Seriously - I agree that the college and/or univ should not allow one part of the school to have a school sponsored pinning. But I think if the students themselves want it, then they should, and it should be completely unaffiliated with the school. The purchase of pins makes it difficult - my school actually had pins for sale in the bookstore or you could go online and pick out your own. But as you say, then you lose that sense of graduating from one place.
steph

But the problem is that, if the ceremony is "completely unafffiliated with the school," then it really is completely meaningless. It's like having a "wedding" in which the participants aren't really getting married -- so what's the point?? Playing "dress-up"? It's a lot of fuss and show, but it doesn't really mean anything.

IMHO, the pinning ceremony, at this point, is merely a relic of a bygone era of nursing (and, as I said before, it truly pains me to say that, because I am a "relic" of the same era -- a proud diploma grad). People still get all warm and fuzzy about them, but it's just empty sentiment nowadays.

allnurses Guide · Jul 17, 2006

But the problem is that, if the ceremony is "completely unafffiliated with the school," then it really is completely meaningless. It's like having a "wedding" in which the participants aren't really getting married -- so what's the point?? Playing "dress-up"? It's a lot of fuss and show, but it doesn't really mean anything.
IMHO, the pinning ceremony, at this point, is merely a relic of a bygone era of nursing (and, as I said before, it truly pains me to say that, because I am a "relic" of the same era -- a proud diploma grad). People still get all warm and fuzzy about them, but it's just empty sentiment nowadays.

I have to say I'm a little bit more sympathetic to your viewpoint then I was when I was a student.

steph