Nightingale Pledge and Nursing hats at pinning ceremony....

Nursing Students Male Students

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Specializes in Rheumatology/Emergency Medicine.

Any of you fella's face this dilemma,

We have our pinning ceremony in 5 weeks and the girls in class decided that they wanted to wear nurse caps and white's. So us fella (thank god don't have hats) will stand out a little more than usual, I thought that standardization would be best (no hats) and those hats are so......1960.

Second is the pledge, there is a LPN pledge (we aren't using) and the Nightingale pledge that we are using. What sticks in my claw is that it's written with the old female stereotypes built in...."I pledge to live my life in purity"......"endeavor to aid the physician in his work". And we wonder why this is thought of as womens work, even the pledge is geared toward women, I don't know too many people living their lives in purity these days and women aren't doctors now?

I know petty BS, but it's bad enough joining the girls club without having to take a girlie pledge :D I like the LPN pledge better as it is gender neutral and reflects the current work/world environment a little better, but that's just the fella in my talking.:lol2:

Tony

p.s. Girls who read this, yes I know nursing is mostly women, yes the girls want their caps, yes I'll be at the pinning ceremony and no, I won't spoil the ladies enjoyment by complaining about their caps.....even though no one wears them anymore and by wearing them they are excluding the boys from part of the ceremony....are they not?

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If your school is open to the possibility, there are some good updated versions of the Nightingale Pledge (not written by Flo, BTW -- written much later by someone else entirely) that are not as "icky" as the original.

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Here is an earlier thread about alternative versions of "the pledge" --

https://allnurses.com/general-nursing-student/looking-nightingale-pledge-204645.html

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Specializes in Rheumatology/Emergency Medicine.
If your school is open to the possibility, there are some good updated versions of the Nightingale Pledge (not written by Flo, BTW -- written much later by someone else entirely) that are not as "icky" as the original.

Yeah, right in our book next to the Nightingale one is the LPN pledge, but the instructors want the NG Pledge, oh well, when in Rome, do as the Romans...:D I'm getting the girlie cooties on me thinking about "I promise live my life in purity" he he.

Tony

p.s. I really hope I don't PO anyone with the girlie stuff, (just teasing anyway), I went from all male occupations for 22 yrs to 99% female where I work at and go to school, it's an attitude adjustment needless to say.

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

At our pinning, we told the two guys in the class they were welcome to wear caps if they wanted to :) Both declined.

Neither voiced a complaint about the Nightingale pledge...I think they (just like the ladies) didn't focus on the gender biases and just accepted it as being part of the pinning tradition. To be honest, I don't think any of us really noticed the gender biases...though we all did crack up in rehearsal while reading the purity part :D

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Specializes in Rheumatology/Emergency Medicine.
At our pinning, we told the two guys in the class they were welcome to wear caps if they wanted to :) Both declined.

Good one :D I guess I'll decline as well, I need to go study the pledge, we are getting graded on it as well. Have to recite it in the instructors office.

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Specializes in Med Surg.

You get graded on how well you memorize a pledge???!!!??? After reading these posts, I may have to take back all the comments I've made about goofy policies where I'm about to graduate from.

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I don't see why "living (your) life in purity" is a gender-related issue ...

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Specializes in Rehabilitation; LTC; Med-Surg.
Any of you fella's face this dilemma,

We have our pinning ceremony in 5 weeks and the girls in class decided that they wanted to wear nurse caps and white's. So us fella (thank god don't have hats) will stand out a little more than usual, I thought that standardization would be best (no hats) and those hats are so......1960.

Second is the pledge, there is a LPN pledge (we aren't using) and the Nightingale pledge that we are using. What sticks in my claw is that it's written with the old female stereotypes built in...."I pledge to live my life in purity"......"endeavor to aid the physician in his work". And we wonder why this is thought of as womens work, even the pledge is geared toward women, I don't know too many people living their lives in purity these days and women aren't doctors now?

I know petty BS, but it's bad enough joining the girls club without having to take a girlie pledge :D I like the LPN pledge better as it is gender neutral and reflects the current work/world environment a little better, but that's just the fella in my talking.:lol2:

Tony

p.s. Girls who read this, yes I know nursing is mostly women, yes the girls want their caps, yes I'll be at the pinning ceremony and no, I won't spoil the ladies enjoyment by complaining about their caps.....even though no one wears them anymore and by wearing them they are excluding the boys from part of the ceremony....are they not?

Why is living in purity and helping the doctor a "girlie" thing?

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Specializes in Hospice, Rehab.
Why is living in purity and helping the doctor a "girlie" thing?

Nothing at all wrong with living in purity, but perhaps honesty, personal integrity, or maybe commitment to the patient and our professional ethics would be more important to the professional practice of nursing. And by the way, nursing is now officially not just for girls. It's the right thing to do to detach a nurse's commitment to the future from his or her body configuration.

Some traditions are the foundations of our future, while others hold us in the past. We're no longer the handmaidens of the physician. We're professional collaborators with legal accountability for being the final safety check on a physician's orders. As the pledge that brings these students into the profession, perhaps the future should be given more weight. I can't imagine an engineer taking a pledge to be the handmaiden of the architect.

For tradition, nothing beats wearing all white. I make a point of wearing white every day as part of my uniform. Not to symbolize purity, but to make sure that I am visible in my role. White also boosts the confidence of patients and families, whether we want to admit it or not. All white at the ceremony is fine, but remember not to wear colored undies. The hats have a nostalgia value that is hard to beat. The educational posters from Joint Commission still show nurses wearing hats. The lack of an equivalent hat for men reminds us of the past but I don't feel connotes an inferiority of the male nurses.

Practically speaking, the male students probably going to have to eat this one unless they can influence school leadership. (And be labeled troublemakers in the process.) I hope that we all remember this when we become nursing instructors and make sure our students don't get the same treatment.

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Nightingale pledge, lol.... Give me a break. Hand over the degree and let me get the hell out of this NS crap.

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It's not petty BS; I wouldn't want to be a part of that ceremony either...and I'm a girl! I would have real issues with saying that pledge outloud and you wouldn't catch me dead in a hat. I'd wear the hat for a silly class photo if it was staged to purposefully look silly, but that's about it. Anyway, your concerns are founded for lots of women and men everywhere. Sorry you have to go throught it but good for you for graduating! That's what counts anyway, huh?

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