silly question

ftr_bb_catchr · Jul 16, 2005

Well I'm no where near graduation but my school does do a "pinning" ceremony. I think that's a pretty traditonal one. No capping though, probably because no one wants to wear a cap. :chuckle

I think a lit of nursing graduation ceremonies are steeped in tradtion though, since nursing is a pretty traditional profession. This should be an interesting thread.

suzy253, RN · Jul 16, 2005

My school is very traditional. It involves capping ceremonies. First year students receive a plain white nurses cap--being capped by one of the instructors. the male students receive a cadeucus pin. 2nd year students receive a stripe on their caps and seniors receive another stripe. At graduation itself, seniors receive their diploma and get pinned with the school of nursing pin. we don't wear the caps on clinical--it's just a traditional ceremony and actually quite lovely.

Student_Nurse_WV · Jul 16, 2005

Thanks for the responses! I don't know what my school does (I don't start until next year). I am just a curious nursing student!! Anyone else want to tell us what they do for their graduation? Why do you think nursing is so deep in tradition? Just a thought... :)

Treeta · Jul 18, 2005

Our school has a pinning ceremony. Most of the students have their support person do the pinning, husband or parents. I think a capping ceremony would be lovely.

Treeta

ftr_bb_catchr · Jul 18, 2005

Our school has a pinning ceremony. Most of the students have their support person do the pinning, husband or parents. I think a capping ceremony would be lovely.
Treeta

I like this idea, having someone close to you pin you. Our school has staff do it but I think it would be nce to have someone who supported you through the ordeal be involved. You can prepare a written statement that will be read while you are being pinned though. I think it can only be 50 words but you have the opportunity to thank your family which is nice. I would also like to have a capping ceremony... I think nurses caps, while probably a little inconveinent, are really very cute.

KimberRN1 · Jul 18, 2005

I graduated from nursing school in WV....I think all the schools in our state pretty much have a pinning ceremony ....my school has a BSN and an ADN program and the pinning ceremony was together....as far as the hats we had to wear them for our official graduation pictures....the pictures are organized by the school...you go to the place where the pics will be taken, the BSN and ADN students caps are different by the folds in the hat... I can't even remember exactly but I think the ADN caps had 2 folds and the BSN had 4 folds...folds for years of school....We didn't even get our own cap, everyone in our class used the same one for the pics...lol....and we didn't have them in any part of graduation....I actually liked the pinning ceremony better than graduation because it was the morning of graduation with only the nursing students and family, faculty members etc present....you got pinned and got a rose, it was really nice....then later that afternoon we had graduation with everyone else graduating that year.....

Student_Nurse_WV · Jul 19, 2005

I graduated from nursing school in WV....I think all the schools in our state pretty much have a pinning ceremony ....my school has a BSN and an ADN program and the pinning ceremony was together....as far as the hats we had to wear them for our official graduation pictures....the pictures are organized by the school...you go to the place where the pics will be taken, the BSN and ADN students caps are different by the folds in the hat... I can't even remember exactly but I think the ADN caps had 2 folds and the BSN had 4 folds...folds for years of school....We didn't even get our own cap, everyone in our class used the same one for the pics...lol....and we didn't have them in any part of graduation....I actually liked the pinning ceremony better than graduation because it was the morning of graduation with only the nursing students and family, faculty members etc present....you got pinned and got a rose, it was really nice....then later that afternoon we had graduation with everyone else graduating that year.....

Where in WV did you graduate?

RNsRWe, ASN, RN · Jul 20, 2005

Hi guys
I am just kind of curious about the graduation tradition of nursing. I read a few other places on this site about capping and pinning ceremonies when you graduate. What do you guys do at your schools when you graduate? Is it traditional? Please share...I am very interested in hearing from you all! :)

We have what's called the Candlelight Ceremony (or just Candlelight). Auditorium filled with friends and family is dark, students file in down either aisle each carrying a Lamp of Learning (looks like Aladdin's lamp with a candle stuck in it). They carry the lamp to a head table on the stage, light a small votive with it, and then blow out the Lamp. When everyone has taken their assigned seats on the stage, the lights come back on, and the rest of the ceremony begins.

A few nursing director speeches, President of College does his speechy thing, etc, and the pinning ceremony. Each class gets to personalize Candlelight; this class just graduated in May did a neat thing with a slide show set to music. It was SO nice. They also had the five guys graduating sing a little ditty to guitar music one of them was playing, a spoof about male nursing, and it was hysterical!

The pinning ceremony is like everyone else's, I think: the student chooses the person or persons he or she would like to come up on stage to do the pinning, while the Director announces the student and who it is that's doing the pinning. Most people had a spouse, or a parent, or a child or children. One student chose one of her nursing instructors.

From what I gather, it's up to each class to decide on hats or not...and I don't think anyone's done it in recent memory. One student DID wear a cap (even though there was no capping ceremony) because it was her grandmother's cap (and her mother was also a nurse, you get the idea). Ah, tradition! :)

rainwoman12 · Jul 20, 2005

We had a pinning ceremony and some of elected to wear caps

Student_Nurse_WV · Jul 20, 2005

Thanks for replying guys! Please continue to share your schoo'l nursing tradition!

perfectbluebuildings, BSN, RN · Jul 20, 2005

My pinning was just a few weeks ago and it is still quite vivid in my mind! :)

We got to do much of the planning for it; the administrative assistant in the nursing dept. gave us a program from previous years outlining the parts that were required but in reality we had a lot of free rein, regarding the music and such, and we could add a few things, as long as it was an hour or less. It was really nice. I think we were able to make it quite personal since there were only 11 of us so we knew each other very well and could plan with everyone's input.

It was at a church on campus, and it was such a sunny and beautiful day. We prayed downstairs with all the professors before the ceremony, then processed in to music each carrying a lily, and rather than wearing all white, we each wore a different solid color scrubs, which ended up looking really neat. There were prayers (it is a Christian-based school), both by professors outside the nursing department that we had all had and liked, at the beginning and end of the ceremony, which were beautiful. One of the girls in the class was in the women's chorus and they sang a song that is very special to them, "Precious Lord," which was absolutely beautiful. There was of course the introduction of professors and such, and we picked one of our professors to give the speech. She is awesome, and made it funny but also reminded us why we are doing nursing and how amazing it is even if it is hard.

Then we had the actual pinning part of the ceremony. One of our other favorite professors would read our name, and then we had each pre-recorded a speech telling who was pinning us and why (we could have as many or as few people to come up as we liked). We gave the person who actually put the pin on us, our flower we'd carried in, hugged everyone who came up of course, and then we went up onto the stage and lined up. After the last person had been pinned and we were all standing up there, we stood for a few minutes while people took photos, and the song "Believe" by Fantasia played. At one point in the song, we began processing down each side of the stage and we had put these gifts in the front on the same table with the pins, and as each pair of students came down, they presented the gift to each other and hugged each other (It was a special gift with an angel representing nurses and each other, and we'd each drawn one of the other students' names and written her a letter about what we'd remember and encouragement and such, and put it in the box), and with an odd number it ended up being a three-person hug at the end. As we walked off the stage, too, we weren't expecting it but everyone spontaneously began to applaud us. The church was full of people- families, friends, even one of our professors that had left the college a year ago- and they were all applauding us! Then there was a benediction, and then our processional- "Celebrate!" to which we did the Electric Slide down the aisle out of the church. It was a very special ceremony, and while the graduation ceremony for the entire graduating class with all majors was absolutely amazing, too- this was much more sentimental and almost more meaningful, I think. All the family and friends there who supported us through, getting to be recognized too, and us let them know how much we appreciated them. I will always have amazing memories of it.

Sorry I rambled on for days, there! :rolleyes: But I am a reminiscing person and I love to write and remember things.