We were told yesterday that we're required to wear white scrubs for our 45 minute pinning ceremony.
As students, we are required to buy and wear ceil blue scrubs.
They want us to buy a set of white scrubs to wear for this short, silly ceremony.
I, being the way I am, questioned this idiocy and pointed out that a lot of the students in my class can barely afford to go to school and still feed their kids and pay their bills, and firmly averred my deep disdain for making us buy these "wear once" scrubs. On top of $1300 tuition + books this semester, $50 "pinning fee", $139 BON application fee, $50 HESI fee, $20ish fingerprint fee, $200+ NCLEX fee.....I've had enough.
Am I just being a fartknocker about this, or do any of you see this as stupid, pointless, and lacking concern or awareness about the financial woes of nursing students? I'm in a better position to afford this than most of my classmates because I had savings from past employment and my wife has a good-paying nursing job.
Some of my classmates, I have had to buy their meals at the stupid "end of semester clinical group gathering at the most expensive restaurant we can find, where we give the employed instructor the gift we managed to scrounge up $10/ea to buy" because some kissass, or often, the instructor, picks PF Changs instead of Shoneys.
It wouldn't be so bad if any of the hospitals here allowed whites (most of them have color-enforced dress codes), but to add ONE MORE expense, to be used for one stupid ceremony...well, it aggravated me.
The instructor, more used to meek and mild students who don't question the status quo, blinked about 10 times and then informed me I should start a petition to be given to the director of our program.
its nonsense to kill all those trees for a silly tradition
Way ahead of you. My mom's got a beautiful fake-tree that lives in a box in the basement until the holidays, and I have three cats who eat ornaments and tinsel, so I don't even put one up. Presents still get to whom they're supposed to, cheezy movies are still watched and the house is still full of baked goods.
Christmas still works just fine without the real tree. :3
I don't see why a pinning ceremony couldn't work just as well without the whites. :wink2:
Hold your OWN pinning ceremony. Once you guys get thru and everybody's passed, hopefully, meet in a park, light the candles, say the pledge, take some pictures, have a picnic or barbeque with all the families and the kiddies. Let the school take their Cecil B. Demile production and stuff it. You don't HAVE to go to graduation to get your diploma, so why do you HAVE to go to a needlessly expensive ceremony? Maybe if they have a couple of these and no one comes to them, it'll clue them in that economic times have changed.
we got slammed with a buttload of out of pocket fees right before pinning and i was bummed that some of my classmates wouldn't be able to participate due to lack of funds.
i don't have extra money nor did i have spare time (i worked a full 40 hr a week job during nursing school) but my classmates and i were able to sell t-shirts and sell enough of them to cover the cost of the entire pinning. i designed it and made a very reasonable deal with a local college guy who does screen print work. once we told people it was for our nursing graduation, they got one and some even gave extra. everybody pictched in, took them to work or church or whatever, and we made it happen. we collected money on the spot, i placed the order, picked them up in two days, whoever got the order dropped off the shirt.
we all were able to buy our new white scrubs, lamps, decorations and cake and also had enough left over to give a junior student a small scholarship and make a donation to the facility that we had our pinning at.
it was an absolutely beautiful ceremony. and we didn't pay a penny.
The average family in my county makes $26,000 a year.
Tuition for 3 semesters - $4350
Books for 3 semesters - $800 (1st) $230 (2nd) $250 + (3rd) not sure on third but we only bought 1 new set of books second semester and 3rd semester we will have two new sets
Uniforms - $95 (we had no choice about cost or where we got them from)
NCLEX - $300 + (I know its around 300 but not 100% on the exact price)
Unit End Exams - $75
Entrance test fee - $55
- random necessary things that I am not sure of the price on...stethescope/unexpected miscellaneous fees
So total Cost is $6155 plus incidentals (and I included our 3 required patches at $15 each and $10 per class syllabuses in that non-calculated incidentals)
Thats 23.6% of the income of the average family in my area PER YEAR!!!
Sorry but your math is off, or my entire section of the country is more poor than the average Phillipino~
It appears that your math is a bit off as well. $1500 per year over there versus $26000 per year here, the average family in your county still makes more than the average Filipino family per annum. While your percentage may be higher than the what woknblues stated, it may be because nursing schools here are more expensive than it is in the Philippines.
Plus, woknblues gave the costs for the graduation ceremony only--not including the now 5 years of tuition, books, daily expenses and other costs associated with a bachelor's degree in Nursing (yes, majority of nursing grads from PI are bachelor degree holders). So technically, you are still better off than probably almost half of that country's population. :)
so, no matter where each of us are from we all have the same struggle about the rising costs of education.
It's makes me sad to read your feelings about pinning. You are the first person I have encountered with this type of reaction. You should consider it an honor to be a part of the pinning ceremony. It is a long standing tradition for the NS to wear white. Why wouldn't you want to be a part of this special day. What is fifty dollars especially if your wife is a nurse, she should understand the importance of this special day. You have earned it. Be proud, care about it, don't treat it as if it is meaningless. In my opinion, starting a petition will only cause more tension when you are going through the hardest semester. Not only that, imagine what you are taking away from the other students who have been waiting for two years to have the honor of wearing whites, coming together with fellow students, and past instructors. If you don't care about pinning just don't pay and don't go. It's as simple as that. Don't ruin it for everyone else. Let everyone enjoy their day they deserve the tradition and so do their families who have sacrificed.
i definitely understand your feelings toward the said expense. but for my opinion, it is already expected, in the case of my country, that once you decided to take up nursing, you are going to spend quite a big amount that sometimes we have to sacrifice things just to pay for our requirements. if it is the instruction of your school and it is what it is, then just conform on it since you have choosen that school which gives you the respinsibility as their student to follow their own standard. if you students really cannot afford it then confrontation with the organizer of the pinning ceremony is the answer. confrontation with respect. knowing that you are a candidate, i congratulate you in advance but do not feel safe yet because you have still a long way to run. goodluck and God bless!
It appears that your math is a bit off as well. $1500 per year over there versus $26000 per year here, the average family in your county still makes more than the average Filipino family per annum. While your percentage may be higher than the what woknblues stated, it may be because nursing schools here are more expensive than it is in the Philippines.
Plus, woknblues gave the costs for the graduation ceremony only--not including the now 5 years of tuition, books, daily expenses and other costs associated with a bachelor's degree in Nursing (yes, majority of nursing grads from PI are bachelor degree holders). So technically, you are still better off than probably almost half of that country's population. :)
so, no matter where each of us are from we all have the same struggle about the rising costs of education.
Just my two cents.
Yeah, that! Total cost of tuition, books, and everything else related to the costs of going to nursing school in the Philippines is far beyond what a families average income is. Probably a minimum of 125%....I was only talking about the 4 hour graduation ceremony!!! And my point is that we are all facing the pinch. A family making $26,000 in today's America is probably pretty poor, to be sure.
my bad, I misread it.
Forgiven!
I can really feel the frustration in you OP. And a lot of us can relate. Try to go for a walk and cool off. When you are done with it all, check out the "burning your uniform" thread in the search bar. It will give you some ideas. I'll be BBQing mine. You just can't put a price tag on the satisfying smell of burning double knit polyester!
It's makes me sad to read your feelings about pinning. You are the first person I have encountered with this type of reaction. You should consider it an honor to be a part of the pinning ceremony. It is a long standing tradition for the NS to wear white. Why wouldn't you want to be a part of this special day. What is fifty dollars especially if your wife is a nurse, she should understand the importance of this special day. You have earned it. Be proud, care about it, don't treat it as if it is meaningless. In my opinion, starting a petition will only cause more tension when you are going through the hardest semester. Not only that, imagine what you are taking away from the other students who have been waiting for two years to have the honor of wearing whites, coming together with fellow students, and past instructors. If you don't care about pinning just don't pay and don't go. It's as simple as that. Don't ruin it for everyone else. Let everyone enjoy their day they deserve the tradition and so do their families who have sacrificed.
Byaggha
67 Posts
Christmas still works just fine without the real tree. :3
I don't see why a pinning ceremony couldn't work just as well without the whites. :wink2: