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

Is it possible to skip the pledge, wearing white, and getting some kind of pin? Geez. How castrating. Another reason I'm glad I didn't go the BSN route.

The two men in the class of 23 were given caps made from regular baseball caps with signs designating the males as 'boy nurse'. Most of the class consider the nursing caps as a burden, so they had us wear ours also. I proudly stood for the picture, saying 'Get the shot now, no more chances after this'. I did request to wear mine to clinicals, just like everyone else, and was told 'no'. The class is participating in a tradition that includes the caps. When we graduate, I am requesting a change in the the sign on my cap to 'man nurse' or even better, 'real nurse'. We didn't recite a pledge. The instructor did gracefully accept a small cement gorgoyle as a momento of the occasion from me.

I can't decide if I want to laugh hysterically or simply... barf.

You have to memorize and recite the NG pledge. Give me a break.

The NG pledge is a throwback to nuns and monks serving as nurses.

I'm looking for a professional job, not to join a religious order... and I'm looking forward to working WITH physicians, not serving as their handmaiden or cabin boy.

I just found out we will recite the Nightingale Pledge at our pinning ceremony in December. This is a real and significant problem for me. I will not say it.

Why on Earth do some nursing programs say this pledge when it violates so much they are actually teaching in their programs? Tradition is not sacred and to be repeated and reinforced when it is in error. This really disturbs me, how nurses sometimes undermine their own profession.

Sorry you have to do this. We got to decided as a class and fortunately none of us were down with the NG pledge. If we'd have gone that way I would've simply stood quietly and not said anything. Too bad you're being put on the spot - but at least you don't have to do what Tony did.

This is interesting enough to do a term paper on.
The first Nurses in the USA were all man in north jersey city called Elizabeth , NJ It was a catholic hospital. They might of worn robes with hoods on them?

Here in our school we had a pin and a medicne logo so pretty much not the same with our usual uniform.

If you check out the early traditions, say decades ago- men wore chevrons or stripes on their sleeves of their scrubs to show that they were nurses instead of wearing caps back when females wore them. Maybe you can do that since you are probably not going to wear your whites after you graduate anyway. We are guys in a female dominated profession- you might as well stand out with the identification on your sleeve.

That is what I would do. It would look like a military scrub-type of thing. Kind of cool. Hope this helps.