Did your school allow "thank yous" during your pinning?

Our nursing school is getting ready to graduate its first class of ADN students. For the pinning ceremony, our class requested that we could each create a brief "thank you" that would be printed in the insert of the program and then read as we were pinned. (Initially we asked for a slideshow during the pinning that displayed our "thank you" while we were being pinned, but our school won't pay for the extra AV equipment at the ceremony.)

So, in making a case to take to the administration, I was hoping to compile some info from nurses about pinning ceremonies across the nation.

Did your school provide you with a forum to thank people (whether ,, spoken or on a slideshow, etc)?

If so, what school did you attend?

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR INPUT! I thank you in advance and so does my entire nursing class!

[carolinapooh, BSN, RN]

No, but I think that's a cool idea!

[lmreed13]

I just graduated with my BSN from Ball State University. We did have a slide show at the beginning with a baby picture then our pinning picture, along with that our class voted to have thank you quotes along with our pictures. We all loved it :)

[kaydensmom01]

We all wrote our thank you's on index cards and the director read them as we were getting pinned.

[MLB4]

We had a pinning ceremony with a slideshow to display a picture we selected (spouse, family, yourself, friend, etc) and up to a 20 word message. It was very nice.

[adnrnstudent, ASN, RN]

Our school didn't pay a dime for our pinning. We paid for it, so we could rent whatever equipment we decided we wanted.

[akulahawkRN, ADN, RN, EMT-P]

My program has each student write their own short "thank you" on a card and then whoever is the MC of the ceremony reads it. We may be able to do this via multi-media as well, but that has to be figured out first. It's not too difficult, anyway, as the class that just graduated had a slide show during there.

[nursejami]

For the pinning ceremony, our class requested that we could each create a brief "thank you" that would be... read as we were pinned.

This is what we did. The idea of also printing it on the program is a great one. I'm not sure if my dad really got to hear my thank you as we were both more concerned with him not stabbing me with the pin! It would have been nice to also have it in writing.

[CT Pixie, BSN, RN]

My LPN pinning was done during our graduation. Our program booklet had 'thank yous' in it but they were not read during the ceremony.

My RN program did not have any 'thank yous' in the program for the pinning ceremony (which was seperate from graduation) nor was anything read.

[BloomNurseRN, ASN, BSN, RN]

Our RN program doesn't have a separate pinning but rather just does pinning while walking for graduation. We say the pledge and that's it, which was really disappointing. The LPN classes have pinning ceremonies because they don't generally walk in graduation.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

We had a multi-page program designed so attendees would know what was happening in what order. And in the same program, a section for a statement for each graduate. Could be a thank you, whatever. Mostly alot of thanks and recognition for those of importance to each graduate.

Can't see reading all these aloud, as anyone in the audience would have the program and the words on paper. Time-consuming to read aloud, as well. Oh, that reminds me: there was also a word limit on whatever the graduates wanted printed...kept it down to a manageable number of pages!

[chicagoboy]

Our ADN program had a 50 page booklet which include the faculty as well as graduate names. Also included was the order of pinning ceremony and a few ads who contributed for the booklet. Our DON had us wrote a Thank You notes which was included on the last few pages of the booklet.