Ripped Off

[Price 2002]

This might get kinda long so I will start out by thanking everyone that reads it! As many of you know I am graduating October 1st with my degree in Practical Nursing. My school only has once a year mass graduation ceremonies (every May), I knew that going into the program and totally understood but I was told that EVERY nursing program would have a pinning ceremony, as was everyone else in the nursing program that I have spoke to. So last week my class is told that we will be having our pinning on November 21st, we were given a time, the place, how many tickets we could have so we could plan on who to invite (8 tickets per person), told about parking, what to wear, and what to expect etc. We were all very excited, as you can imagine. So yesterday they come into our class and tell us that everything is changed and our pinning will be October 3rd. Well that sounded great until they told us that we were going to be pinned with the MA students because it is not fair that we get pinned and they don't and that the pinning will be held at 1pm on a Friday, at the school and we are only allowed to invited 2 people. I am a married mother of two kids! How is that fair? Many of us are married or involved and have childern and other family members that have supported us through out this. My very elderly grandma was looking forward to watching my get pinned and to bring her into my old school with all kinds of other classes walking around and being loud just seems for the lack of a better word trashy. So many of us are upset because we feel lied to. How can they expect people to take off work in the middle of the day to attend this?

Then when everyone started objecting to this new "pinning" we are told not to make to big deal of a fuss and shut our mouths or we may lose it all together. As it stands now we are boycotting the "pinning" and having our own after graduation. It just is one more thing to worry about that we shouldn't have to when it has been promised to us from the beginning. Thank you for reading this....any advice or comments or encouragement would help so much at this point!

[Price 2002]

I sure hope that those that choose to boycott do not incur repercussions, however, after thinking about it, I am sure that legally, the school can be in a heap of trouble if they do, in fact, start passive harassment of students that have, in fact, successfully completed the program. The ceremony is more of memories than a necessity, really. I didn't need it myself, so, I didn't go due to my own personal reasons that also had to do with school politics.

In any event, another reason why I advocate for boycotting is that it will show the spineless instructors that they need to advocate for the particular program they are teaching in. It will show the administration the next time that they are messing with tradition and disrespecting LPNs in particular.

Just the other day, I found out that our sister hospital is attempting to implement a uniform change, where they want for the RNs to wear white while their LPNs are to wear beige or maroon. While this sounds petty, this, to me is disrespectful. Traditionally, RNs and LPNs wore white. The difference I am aware of was the cap-the RN cap was either black or dark blue, while the LPN was light blue. If the LPN is medicating and treating patients, yet, are not standing out in pristine white, how would the patient interpet this? And, how would the LPN, who is, in fact, a nurse in her own right with her own scope of practice governed by the same Board of Nursing feel that she is suddenly not good enough to wear white?? It is saying that she is nothing, and that, to me is wrong.

The Medical Assistant may already be mistakenly aligning themselves to the LPN (as we have discussed in SO many passionate threads on this forum), which is already wrong, however, if this group gets to graduate with them, say the same pledge of Florence, carry the lamp, and the whole thing, they, then, further delude themselves that they are in fact, nurses (NOT). Let them make up their own tradition, their own memories to cherish, but don't pee on our legs and tell us it is raining (yeah, I am a Judge Judy fan, folks)!!

The problem is that people are not going to stick together. If everyone collectively says that they will NOT pay graduation dues, not walk, and does not show up, then, there will be too many people to fight. If you have your own ceremony, it will make a statement that nurses (and I mean ALL of us, LPN, ADN, BSN), can collectively make a way out of no way to gain respect for ourselves.

Repercussions were one of my biggest worries about boycotting the school's ceremony. I would not put it past them to hold up our paperwork just to spite us. I am going to speak with my fellow classmates on Tuesday and see what they think about me contacting my father's friend who is an attorney and seeing if we have any kind of a case or at least if we can use him in some form. I am sick of being pushed around and being told to shut up and put up and "that's how it is in the real world, or "in nursing you have to be flexible". Well I think that I have flexed as far as possible and have reached my breaking point along with many others. Thank you all for the encouragement and I will keep you posted on the progress that we make.

[CHATSDALE]

i like the idea of having your own pinning ceremony

you could each be pinned by a family member

have each talk about what this means to them, or tell a funny story about what happen during a clinical or what they hope what this door opens to their future anything to make this day personal to each of the graduates

i would also write a letter to your local paper and let it be known that you feel like you have been shafted it wouldn't hurt to send a copy to the head of the school

CONGRATS x 100 times on your graduation..

[lindarn]

Repercussions were one of my biggest worries about boycotting the school's ceremony. I would not put it past them to hold up our paperwork just to spite us. I am going to speak with my fellow classmates on Tuesday and see what they think about me contacting my father's friend who is an attorney and seeing if we have any kind of a case or at least if we can use him in some form. I am sick of being pushed around and being told to shut up and put up and "that's how it is in the real world, or "in nursing you have to be flexible". Well I think that I have flexed as far as possible and have reached my breaking point along with many others. Thank you all for the encouragement and I will keep you posted on the progress that we make.

Good for you!! Feel free to use any and all of my threads to encourage your fellow students to stick together about this. Tell them that I said that if they buckle to your school administration about this insult, they are spineless Martyr Marys that deserve it. No one respects anyone who allows themselves to be bullied. If you don't respect yourself enough to stand up to this who will respect you? MHO and my NY $0.02.

Lindarn, RN, BSN, CCRN

Spokane, Washington

[tothepointeLVN, LVN]

I'm sorry this is happening to you. At our school the Vn's have a pinning ceremony of our own including white caps and dresses and 2x a year a communal graduation at the Shrine in LA with the rest of the school's program.