Pinning ceremony

Jennerizer, ASN, RN · May 3, 2003

What do you plan on writing on your index card? How many do you have graduating as compared to how many started the program?

nrselisa · May 3, 2003

I plan on thanking my family and instructors. I have decided not to name each instructor by name as many of my classmates are choosing to do. I think that will take up too much room & am afraid that I will leave someone out. I am sure that my instructors will be "thanked" enough & will probably forget who I am in a few years. My children & the rest of my family will probably be so grateful to be mentioned & will remember this day for years to come.

We began with 26 students, we gained 2 additional students in Med Surg II. We now have 18 students, but we also still have 2 finals left.

Lisa :)

USA987, MSN, RN, NP · May 3, 2003

For our pinning, we have to wear "day business dress". We had to write sentiments 40 words or less to be printed in the program and then it will be read out loud as we are being pinned. Our pins costed anywhere between $23-300 depending on what you chose for the metal, etc. Our ceremony is outdoors so we could invite as many people as we wanted. We are expecting approximately 750-1000 people to attend. Our transition program is graduating 29 but only 23 people are attending the pinning and the "generic" program is graduating 63.

Wish me luck because I'm giving a speech and I'm not a huge public speaker!!!!:imbar

allnurses Guide · May 3, 2003

Five years ago we as students decided what to do for our pinning. We debated wearing white uniforms and caps (most wanted to dress up and we won). We picked the place to hold the ceremony, picked the food, etc. Local hospitals donated congratulation cakes. We invited as darn many people as we wanted even though we were supposed to limit it. We asked one of our "fill-in" instructors to speak . . .she was awesome. Our instructors were told by their "boss" not to attend our pinning as the pinning was something that was unprofessional and not done anymore. She had been trying to discourage it for two years. I did some research on the reasons she gave for not having it and they were all wrong . . .I went to a meeting, presented my findings and invited all the teachers. Three showed up .. . . .geez, politics started early in my nursing career.

Do what you want . .it is your day. Best wishes.

NurseDixie · May 4, 2003

We have to wear all white uniforms, white shoes, too. We pick the instructor that we want to pin us. We are allowed to invite as many as we want. But, for graduation, we only get 4 tickets, it's going to be hard to pick just 4. But the one who hoods us doesn't have to have a ticket.

zambezi, BSN, RN · May 4, 2003

For our pinning last year, we dressed up...kind of like prom...it was so fun, we had all seen each other in whites all year long so it was fun to dress up...we didn't have any individual speeches but we had a person of our choosing pin us...I think that we could have ten people invited...we had 40 students to start and finished with about 33 (or so..) Congratulations and Good Luck!

nrselisa · May 4, 2003

I was also wondering what everyone else did for music. We are thinking about the graduation song by Vitamin C. In the previous years the classes have chosen a singer, but we didn't know of anyone.

Lisa :)

xantha31669 · May 5, 2003

Hi, I am in the process of helping to plan our pinning now. We will wear white uniforms, no scrubs, caps optional (I think 27 out of 44 are wearing them). There are 50 of us so that leaves room for 5 guests each plus instructors. We are having the education dept head from a local hospital speak, she is a third generation nurse who worked her way up through the ranks. We are also doing the little thank you on the card thing. Our director is pinning everyone, we thought it would get confusing with 50 different people doing it. Haven't decided on songs yet.

We get to get dressed up and let loose on the night before with a banquet. We are having a DJ and the first hour is open bar. Everything is paid for through fundraising and from our own pockets. We got the local hospitals to donate some money and the school activity fund matches that. Sorry this is soo long!!

Lori

nadia562002 · May 5, 2003

Man, I feel lucky. My class will wear simply nice clothes of our own choosing on Friday. I put an awful lot of thought into who should pin me considering I lost both my parents within a year of each other shortly before I was accepted to nursing school. I decided that the next best person should be my aunt who was a psychiatric nurse for many many years. Favorite instructors just dont cut the mustard for me. I thought they were great but we should be given the choice.

AppyHorseFan · May 5, 2003

unfortunately, i am not getting pinned or graduating this year, but thought i would throw in how our school does the pinning ceremony. i don't like the way it's done, but anyway, here goes.

the sophomores take their final at 0800 on monday morning. the pinning ceremony is held immediately afterwards. sophomores and faculty are the only ones present. no family, no friends, no one else is allowed. i'm not sure exactly who does the pinning, but i believe it is one of the faculty members, perhaps the dean or the sophomore team leader.

after the pinning, the freshmen (myself included) sna members are in charge of giving a "sophomore tea" where they come in and eat, gather, reminese (sp?), and just enjoy themselves. graduation is then friday night and they are having a graduation party on saturday night with dj, skeet shooting (for the males) and a place for the kids to sleep and rest.

i would like to have a family member(s) (my kids or parents) be the one(s) to pin me. but they say that since this is held in our lecture auditorium there just is not enough room for everyone. i can understand that, there almost isn't enough room for our class, much less anyone else. but it could be held somewhere else where there is room. my family means more to me than any instructor.

sorry, for the length of this. i just get long winded sometimes. :)

good luck to all graduating,

Scavenger'sWife, RN · May 5, 2003

I graduated 4 years ago and was President of the class, so I had a hand in the planning of the ceremony.

Each year is a little different, according to the size of the class, but many things are the same either d/t school policy or tradition.

We wore all white uniforms. (Tradition) Most wore pants. It was by choice if you got "capped" at the time you were pinned. The person who pinned you was your choice. Some had family members, friends, and some chose an instructor. I had my husband pin me, of course!!! A faculty member "capped" you, since the idea is that it is a nurse to nurse symbol. I had the Dean of Nursing cap me, as I felt it was a nice symbol and had lots of tradition in it. As we were a small class (23), we each were allowed to make a small statement of thanks after we were pinned IF we wanted to do it. About half of us did. It turned into a wonderful, crying, blubbery, emotional experience!!!:chuckle

As President, I gave a speech (tradition) as well as the Valedictorian of the class. (I was recovering from bronchitis and feared that my voice wouldn't hold out! But it went well.)

The Dean presented each of us a class flower (Ours was a white rose) as we were pinned. The year I graduated, a favorite teacher was retiring, and most of us, if not all, presented her with our flower as we walked off the stage.

Then we held a party with cake & food that we had raised the money for thru the year. By tradition, the 1st year students act as ushers and servers at the ceremony. They also donate money from their fundraisers to the class as a "gift". The amount is up to the class. Also by tradition, the grads donate a gift to the school or to the class below us. We gave $100 to the Nursing Lab to purchase new supplies for practice lab.

Our pins cost between $35 -$150 depending on the metal. I did not buy all gold because at the time the money was tight (Daughter was getting married a week later) But I wish I had. Maybe I will get a new one next year for myself as an "anniversary" gift!

The college has a separate graduation ceremony where we graduate with other members of the college and wear caps & gowns and get our diploma.

We also chose a Class Song - As we graduated in 1999, lots of us wanted Prince's song "Party like It's 1999", but we felt we should be a little more conservative and chose "I Believe I Can Fly".

Some classes have even had slide shows that had picture students had taken thro the years. I think it can be a cute idea, but often is boring to observers as you don't know who all the people are. I'd say a person should be act as commentator if you do that.

GOOD LUCK & CONGRATS TO ALL GRADUATES!!!! PARTY HEARTY!!!

:biggringi :balloons: