Do you have a graduation AND a pinning?

midcom · Nov 23, 2007

Our school has both & they were scheduled a month apart. Pinning was immediately after finishing the term. The nursing studentsl felt that pinning was much more important than graduation ceremonies & that was a problem for our nursing faculty. Only a few showed up for graduation, making the department head look a bit silly.

So they mandated that both would be held on the same day, figuring they'd have pinning at 3 with a reception & food after, meet at the theater for grad pictures & practice at 4:30, with graduation at 7. Fortunately, ths schedule change took place with the present graduating class. They are not happy about it because it is such a long time between ceremonies.

I had a class of 20, only 7 of us went to graduation.

Dixie

Achoo!, LPN · Nov 23, 2007

yes we have both. I am only going to the pinning ceremony as it is more personal to those who went through the program together. This is a second degree for me, so i have already done the college cap and gown thing and don't feel the need to do it again. I am so excited for pinning- 26 days!!

Megsd, BSN, RN · Nov 23, 2007

We have both. The pinning is referred to as "pre-commencement" and is only attended by nursing folks. The graduation or "commencement" is the next day and involves the entire university. I chose to go to the pinning and not the graduation because I felt my family already watched me walk across the stage and hear my name, and they would rather spend that second day with me, rather than a repeat performance.

PeachyERNurse, BSN, RN · Nov 23, 2007

Our school has both & they were scheduled a month apart. Pinning was immediately after finishing the term. The nursing studentsl felt that pinning was much more important than graduation ceremonies & that was a problem for our nursing faculty. Only a few showed up for graduation, making the department head look a bit silly.
So they mandated that both would be held on the same day, figuring they'd have pinning at 3 with a reception & food after, meet at the theater for grad pictures & practice at 4:30, with graduation at 7. Fortunately, ths schedule change took place with the present graduating class. They are not happy about it because it is such a long time between ceremonies.
I had a class of 20, only 7 of us went to graduation.
Dixie

From what I hear, the same thing was happening at my school (people not showing up for graduation). So, they just cut out the pinning ceremony altogether. No pinning for me; only graduation ceremony.

mzjones6 · Nov 23, 2007

We will just be going to pinning and not graduation mostly. We finish our program Aug.1st, but our university doesn't have an August graduation, so our graduation would be in December. This is also a 2nd degree program, so I don't think most of us care about graduation, not to mention it is 4 months later.

nurz2be · Nov 23, 2007

I'm not graduating for awhile, but still curious . . . our school has graduation and pinning ceremony. I don't see the need to go to two ceremonies. I was wondering if this is common? I think I'll go to the pinning but not the graduation. Especially with dragging the families out for these events, I don't really get it.
Anyone else?
Kelly

We have both. Our pinning ceremony as others have said is where we get to wear our whites and are pinned and capped. There is a lot of reminiscing and photos taken throughout our nursing program. I am still new in the program but one of my friends just had her pinning and graduation at our school. She did both mostly because she got her honors presented to her at the "normal" graduation and that was really important to her and her family. She did say that the emotional one was the actual pinning ceremony.

allnurses Guide · Nov 23, 2007

I attended both - all the RN's at the college graduation wrote "RN" on their caps. I thought it was important for my kids to see me graduate.

Two days later we had a more personal pinning with, of course, just the nursing students. My daughter pinned me.

The nursing faculty wanted us to only do the graduation. Not the pinning as it was old fashioned and unprofessional.

I liked the idea of both.

steph

Lisa CCU RN, RN · Nov 25, 2007

We have both and I am going to both because this is my first college degree and I want to be there. I am getting my Master's too eventually, but I may skip that ceremony.

midcom · Nov 25, 2007

She did both mostly because she got her honors presented to her at the "normal" graduation and that was really important to her and her family. She did say that the emotional one was the actual pinning ceremony.

That's the only reason I went to my graduation. This is my 3rd college graduation and since the only students I knew were in my program, it really felt pretty impersonal. I didn't even invite my family members. However, I was an honors student. I wanted to wear that special cord over my gown to show it. And I was asked to be student speaker. That is such a honor that I couldn't pass that up. It was exciting. I sat on the stage, paraded up on it along with all the faculty, and sat next to the featured speaker, the governor's press secretary (Ok, we're not a big prestigious college:lol2:). Last term the student speaker was also from the PN program. They only had 9 in their class & she was the only one to go to graduation.

Dixie

Wondergirl0905 · Nov 25, 2007

We have a graduation - no pinning.

elkpark · Nov 25, 2007

Just a historical note -- pinning ceremonies date from when nursing schools were free-standing, hospital-based institutions, and the pinning ceremony was the graduation ceremony. Now that most schools of nursing are part of colleges or universities, it's hard to figure the logic for having what amounts to two graduation ceremonies (the general commencement ceremony, and a separate, private nursing ceremony). Also, more and more schools are balking at paying for a separate private ceremony for the nursing students (but not for graduates of any of the other departments of the college or university) -- and you can see that is basically unfair -- which is why more and more schools that do still have pinnings require the students to pay for the ceremony themselves.

Although I am as big a fan as anyone of the wonderful traditions and history of nursing, I'm afraid that, if we are going to have nursing programs be departments of colleges and universities, then it's (past) time to suck it up and abandon pinning ceremonies. The ceremonies seem to be completely out of control now anyway, with students being allowed to plan whatever they want for the ceremony, pick their own pins (instead of the official school pin, which is the original point of the ceremony -- but lots of newer schools of nursing don't even have an official cap or an official pin), wear what they want, pick family members to pin them, etc. The ceremonies no longer serve the purpose they were intended to serve (that's been taken over by commencement), and are, in many cases, unrecognizable as pinning ceremonies, so, why bother??