by nursingrl018

I am in a 4 year RN program but only ending my 1st year. I was just curious as to how it all works. When i graduate..do i get pinned and then take the test to become lisenced? or reverse? and what does the pinning make me ..since im not an RN till i get licensed right? help me so confused!

Re: confused? what happens then?

I never got pinned. I thought the pin was a rip-off so I didn't buy it. You'll finish your BSN and sit for the NCLEX. You'll pass and get your RN license. Forget the pin.

Re: confused? what happens then?

We have a pinning ceremony two days before our graduation. Then the college graduation. Then NCLEX

Re: confused? what happens then?

If your school does a pinning ceremony, that is part of graduating with your degree and has nothing to do with licensure. Once you've successfully completed your nursing program, the school will notify your state BON that you're eligible to write the NCLEX, and you'll be able to register and schedule a test date. Once you pass the NCLEX, you'll get your license.

Re: confused? what happens then?

okay so pinning just means that i graduated the nursing program for school

Re: confused? what happens then?

I dunno, back in the day when one got pinned and was handed your stripe for your nursing cap, it was a big deal....and the Men got a stripe for their uniform.
I loaned my nursing school pin to a fellow graduate for St Patrick's Day, of all things, and she lost it....I am still attempting to replace it....
That "pin" represented all the hard work, sweat and many tears of effort that I put into learning the Science of Nursing.

Re: confused? what happens then?

Yes. Pinning ceremonies date back to the day when the vast majority of nursing programs were hospital-based diploma programs, and the "pinning" was the school's graduation ceremony, at which you received your diploma and the school pin. Now that the vast majority of nursing programs are based in colleges and universities (although there are still some diploma programs around), the nursing students in those programs receive their degrees in the same commencement ceremony as all the other graduating students in the school. Some college and university nursing programs still do a separate pinning ceremony in addition to commencement, some don't (some newer programs never started doing a pinning ceremony, some schools have stopped doing them).

There's some controversy about continuing to do pinning ceremonies in college nursing programs, and there are some older threads on this site discussing that issue, if you're interested in reading more about it. In my experience, they are pretty unpopular with the larger, general administration of colleges/universities, who, understandably, have a hard time understanding why the graduating nursing students deserve a separate, special ceremony of their own (in addition to commencement) when the students graduating from other departments don't get special treatment. Also, lots of nursing students attend the pinning ceremony and skip commencement, which makes the nursing programs (and esp. the pinning ceremonies) unpopular with the general administration and other departments of the school.

Re: confused? what happens then?

Pinning has nothing to do with becoming a licensed nurse. It's simply a ceremonial event that some departments/students choose to do.

Re: confused? what happens then?

Originally Posted by elkpark

There's some controversy about continuing to do pinning ceremonies in college nursing programs, and there are some older threads on this site discussing that issue, if you're interested in reading more about it. In my experience, they are pretty unpopular with the larger, general administration of colleges/universities, who, understandably, have a hard time understanding why the graduating nursing students deserve a separate, special ceremony of their own (in addition to commencement) when the students graduating from other departments don't get special treatment.

I don't think that's true, I worked at Boston University for four years, and it seemed like every department had their own smaller commencement festivities (and I know, because I catered all of them.) I don't think it's considered "special treatment" to have a small ceremony of our own, especially since it's the last time all members of our class will be together without the rest of the school's population there. It will be kind of sad for me to say goodbye to the N's and P's that sat on either side of me for tests for the last 2 years... At the "all school" commencement ceremony our alphabetical order will be all mixed up!