Published
Killer nurse on TV's "Criminal Minds"
So did anyone watch this new show tonight? The new "Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior" that had a killer nurse on a rampage. Anyway, I was curious to know if any nurses out there swore an oath to care for patients. Forrest Whitaker's character said something about nurses having sworn an oath to care for people and I thought that was odd since I never knew we had an oath. I mean, I know about the Hippocratic oath but I always thought it was for physicians.
Do we have an oath for nurses I don't know about?
Yup, back when dinosaurs roamed in '72 we did the pledge when we were capped half way through school, it was quite a ceremony, marching in then our instructors lit our candles and "capped" us we also were given little Flo Lamps, like a sorority rite of passage. We got our pins at another big deal ceremony during graduation. I just wish I was old enough to have gotten one of those cool capes nurses used to wear:D.
We had a little stripe on one corner of the cap that ID'd us a students and then after graduation we got the "real thaing" all the way across...LOL
On a side note; I hated our school caps they were soooo ugly (think flying nun). Going to lunch was so much fun (yah back then everyone got lunch) looking at all the different style caps and learning where each nurse went to school.
Looks like (quick wiki/internet check) it been used historically for nurses since 1893. Don't know if it's a formal oath, but I kind of took it that way.
Our school has always used (1913) the pledge at the pinning ceremonies.
I haven't seen the show though. I tend to stay away from medical shows cuz they give me headaches.
The Nightengale Pledge is not new and it is said at most graduation/pinning ceremonies, you may have forgotten it being so excited!We did it with candles and everything, very beautiful and inspirational.
Here's a link that sheds light...hope this helps
I'll have to get out a program from my graduation because I'm almost certain no such thing was done. If it was, it was read my a dean or someone.
Thank you to all that replied. I guess that we have an oath then, I just don't remember reciting one and I graduated not that long ago. I do remember that my school did two neat things; they gave us the little white lamps which I really liked and they let a person of our choosing pin us when our names were called.
Love_2_Learn
223 Posts
I remember the Nightingale Pledge at our pinning ceremony in 1990. Like someone else said, we had lit candles and it was held in a pretty little Methodist church. I remember it was very nice and helped me to remember how being a patient advocate and an upstanding citizen would be important as people look at nurses in a special way.